After three decades of intensive debate, public institutions are beginning to follow
international recommendations on the adoption of intersectionality in legislation and public policies. However, the obstacles to the implementation of intersection-
ality are still mostly unexplored. This article aims to fill this gap through the em-
pirical study of the material and discursive obstacles to implement an intersec-
tionality-informed plan in the municipality of Madrid. Using qualitative methodol-
ogies, our study highlights that, when it is discursively constructed through the
concepts of gender and diversity, intersectionality loses its transformative poten-
tial or is postponed indefinitely. These discursive obstacles are linked to three
material obstacles: i) the absence of a regulatory framework and guidelines; ii) the
compartmentalized organization and institutional culture; and iii) the lack of dis-
aggregated data and underutilization of available data. The results of our study
show that adequate training can help administrative staff to overcome these dis-
cursive and material obstacles. Our study contributes to the theoretical debate on
intersectionality with empirical evidence and provides recommendations for its
implementation within public institutions
