Understanding allyship
Part of the 'Equity Change Project'
Introduction
This section explores what allyship is and how it fits with intersectionality. It will help you to use allyship as a practice method for applying the lens of intersectionality.
Lived experience of allyship
A participant in the Change Project talked about how she had acted as an ally for someone she was working with:
Mrs X needed to see a GP and I had supported her to get an appointment. This was complicated because Mrs X was not able to use the phone and so I rang up on her behalf and got the appointment set up.
On the day, I took her to the GP surgery. When we got there, we were told that the appointment was cancelled. They said they had phoned up to tell Mrs X. We reminded them that Mrs X’s notes should say that she isn’t able to answer the phone. They were apologetic but said we would need to make a new appointment.
So I talked about it with Mrs X and we decided we would sit together in reception until a GP was free to see her. We said we would not leave until Mrs X was seen. And they did see her that day.
Change Project participant
Introduction to allyship
Allyship is a tool that can help us dismantle the master’s house. That is, by acting in a different way allyship helps us to change the inequitable system. Allyship is a method of doing with rather than doing for or to. It seeks to get rid of power imbalances and instead to use voice, power and privilege to help bring down oppression.
An ally is someone from an in-group who supports someone from an out-group. Everyone can be an ally and anyone may need an ally at different times, relating to the different aspects of their identity.
Allyship is a form of intervention or practice. It is about amplifying voice and working with situated knowledge. Situated knowledge is the knowledge that each individual holds that is conditioned by who they are, their identity and their life experiences.
Allyship is found in behaviours and in actions. You need to show up to be an ally (Hua et al., 2017). It means acting now rather than waiting for an issue to affect us personally – the ability to disconnect from issues that don’t affect us is an ignored privilege.
Allyship lifts our work around empowerment to a different level. All too often, we confuse allyship with speaking for those who do not have a voice, when it is really about using your voice to give others their own platform to speak. Advocacy is speaking on behalf of or representing someone who isn’t in a position to voice their perspective or finds it hard to do so – for example, because they’re excluded from a professional meeting. As an ally, we recognise that we don’t give power or voice to people – rather, people already have their own voice, but they face obstacles to expressing it. As allies, we use our own power and voice to remove those obstacles so that others may use their own voice and power any way they want (Pulsely, n-d).
Reflective question
What difference does the concept of allyship make to how you understand social care practice?
Use this tool below to reflect on what allyship is.
This tool helps you to reflect on allyship as a mode of intersectional practice.
Allyship and intersectionality
This is so important to intersectionality. Who within an organisation can cause change?
Change Project participant
Intersectionality helps us to understand lived experience and enhances our ability to be an ally. Allyship is about using the privilege and position that you have and doing what you are uniquely able to do to make change. Intersectionality offers an understanding of privilege, oppression and power. Someone can be part of a privileged group and an oppressed group at different times. By using our intersectional lens, we can identify when someone needs an ally and when they can be an ally.
A hierarchy of oppression stops us from acting as allies. Hierarchy is one of the master's tools. We need to recognise that there are commonalities in oppression which we can understand through the lens of intersectionality and challenge collectively. This allows us to build alliances to overcome a range of ways in which people are discriminated against. An example of such an alliance is the Social Care Future movement. Social Care Future includes people with lived experience, families, professionals, managers, support providers, user-led organisations, politicians, commissioners and community groups among others. They all act as allies to build a shared commitment to bring about major positive change so that social care enables people to do what they love with their life.
Everyone can be an ally, and everyone has need of allyship. Some groups are consistently marginalised because of aspects of their identity. Although there will be differences in the depths of our understanding of the specific experiences and difficulties of different groups, we can be inclusive allies. Being an ally for one group also encourages awareness of when we need to know more about the experiences of another. This helps the process of becoming an inclusive ally. And if we get it wrong, we can learn. It’s important to reflect on what can be done better and not to make your experience as an ally the focus.
Reflective question
How can I use intersectionality to become a better ally?