The Difference Between Equality and Equity
I watched Alex Borstein perform her comedy set Corsets & Clown Suits on Prime. And she said something that got me thinking...
"You want equality, right ladies?
No. You don't want equality, you want equity.
Equality is where everyone is treated the same.
Equity is where everyone gets access to the resources they need to achieve their own success.
And that's how we achieve equality.
You can't have equality without equity.
And I don't think, as long as we have this gender gap, I don't know that it's possible."
I thought this was a really interesting take on the gender gap.
So then, obviously, I had to look into what actually is the difference between equality and equity.
Equality: equivalence, par, sameness
Equity: fairness
My first thought was - is there a difference?
I keep coming back to it over and over again and there may well be a difference.
Going back to women always queuing for the toilets (a post from before)...
Equality is having the same space allocated to them.
Equity is having the space required to ensure that we do not have to queue all the time with kids, elderly parents, and so on.
Again, equality is the same; equity is fairness.
Do we want equality when we are so very, very different?
I'm still pondering on the difference between the two. And it's definitely worth pondering.