Unfortunately, there are different ideas about equality and equity mean. There’s also discussion about the equality of opportunity and equality of outcome. Here are some of the main ideas.
Equality and Equity
Equality: Treating everyone the same regardless of need.
Equity: Treating people differently dependent on their need.
Equality within the UK Equality Act
Equality, however, is often seen as more than treating everyone equally.
For example, in the Equality Act 2010 there is a requirement to take reasonable steps to remove physical disadvantages. An example of this might be adding captions to videos to help people with hearing loss, providing ramps for wheelchair users and braille on lift buttons.
In this sense, equality is used in a similar way as equity above and is more than treating everyone equally.
Equality of opportunity or outcome
Sometimes people refer to ‘equality of opportunity’ and ‘equality of outcome’.
Equality of opportunity is the idea that everyone, as far as possible, has the same opportunities. For example, when applying for a job, people with the same or similar experience and qualifications would have the same opportunities. In other words, they would not be held back because of a characteristic such as age, gender or race.
Equality of outcome is the idea that the ‘end result’ is equal. An example of this would be Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau who named a ministerial team that was equally balanced between men and women (15 women and 15 men). At the time they were mostly aged under 50.