Equality vs. Equity
This piece was originally written for Women Behind the Badge; a community and support network for the wives and partners of those in active military service.
Gender equality vs. gender equity – what’s the difference?
Gender equality has been a rallying cry for women around the world for decades. It’s brought us the right to vote, to work, to become leaders and fight for the same rights that have been afforded to men since time immemorial.
Wonderful as these advances are, the reality is that progress has been pretty glacial. In 2016 there were 27 female CEOs in the Fortune 500 list. By 2021 that had risen to 41 - that’s an average of 2.8 female appointees per year. Whilst we’re moving in the right direction, to get to absolute parity would take another 82 years (and that’s assuming that openings will be consistently available year on year).
At Women Behind the Badge we acknowledge that in an ideal world, gender equality is what we’re aiming for. But we would argue that trying to create gender equality by treating men and women as the same, is to set ourselves up to fail.
Pardon?
We’ll say it again. Treating everyone as equals today is a recipe for ensuring that very little changes.
“Equal” means the same – more specifically, identical. The Cambridge dictionary explains equal as “exactly like each other”. Attempts to build an equal society whilst treating everyone as already equal means that everyone is provided with the same type and amount of resources regardless of what they need, or whether they need those resources at all.
In other words, each person – male, female or however they chose to identify - receives an equal share of resources despite what they already have, or don’t have. In an unequal society, that burden of inequality almost invariably falls on women. In giving everyone the same set of resources, women might be better off than where they are started, but men are even more better off because they started from a better position in the first place.
In only ever using equality as both the means and the ends, we’ll never be able to provide the tailored, gender specific support needed to bring everyone up to parity.
Enter equity…
Equity is like the grown up, wiser version of equality. Equity means giving everyone the tools they need to succeed – as with equality, everyone is entitled to their set of tools, but equity means that everyone’s tools are specific to their needs.
We’ll give you an example:
Equality means that in a service-based job like nursing or catering, both men and women are required to be on their feet all day. Recognising that women can get pregnant and establishing regulations that allow expectant mothers to take breaks and sit down regularly would be equity. The opportunity is the same but the tools needed to facilitate it are different.
Looked at another way, setting up breastfeeding or breast pumping areas in a workplace is equitable but not equal, given that men do not need these facilities – but at the end of the day it allows both men and women to go to that workplace and get on with their job.
Equity expands and improves on straightforward equality because it recognises the unique challenges and advantages that each of us naturally faces, rather than ignoring them. An equitable society is an inherently equal one.
Same same but different
At WBTB we believe that the most important outcome of both equity and equality is choice. Whilst women should be extended exactly the same opportunities, responsibilities and rights as our male counterparts, that doesn’t necessarily mean we want the course of our lives to map exactly onto those available to men.
In being granted equal opportunities we are able to make far more choices about what direction we take and whether we choose Option A or Option B. We might even find ourselves considering Option H.
Looking around the world we live in, it’s obvious that we’re not all the same, identical, or equivalent — but we can all thrive when the things that make us different are not the things that hold us back. That’s equity and that’s why we believe in it.
Women Behind the Badge works with the wives and partners of those in active military service, to support them to remain independent - even whilst their lives and jobs necessarily have to follow their spouse around the world, or whilst they have to navigate months of solo-parenting.
You can find out more on Women Behind the Badge’s work from co-founders Anne Grant and Nicky Mullins.
