Oppressions and systemic barriers in helping marginalized populations: A review of the scope

Adopting an intersectional perspective, this scoping review focused on what the literature of the past five years has identified in terms of systemic barriers arising from different systems of oppression that impede the inclusiveness of helping relationship services for marginalized populations. The analysis of the results of the 13 articles selected revealed the presence of barriers and discrimination in social and helping services for adults with an autism spectrum disorder without intellectual disabilities (barriers arising from ableism); for individuals in a situation of homelessness and working class people (barriers arising from capitalism and classism); for Black people (barriers arising from racism); for people whose sexual orientation diverges from heteronormative norms including older people (barriers arising from heterosexism, heteronormativity, homophobia and ageism); and for people whose gender identity or expression diverges from cisnormative norms (barriers arising from cissexism, transphobia and enbyphobia). This portrait of systemic barriers emerging from the recent scientific literature raises an important need for action to accompany professional career developers to better consider systems of oppression in order to intervene in a more inclusive and intersectional manner.