International Women's Day 2023: #EmbraceEquity
As we pursue gender equality, we must first embrace a culture of equity, which enables achievement by providing tools and resources to help women overcome obstacles they may encounter. Adopting an equity mindset and expanding the economic participation of women shapes a more equal future, and generates economic growth that benefits everyone. The Embrace Equity theme is so important because it represents a critical step in the diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging journey. Equity is about acknowledging people’s difference and creating an environment where everyone gets to flourish. People aren’t all the same, and they don’t all work the same, and they don’t have the same needs.
Equity and equality are often used interchangeably, but they are inherently different concepts. The IWD 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign theme seeks to help forge worldwide conversation to better distinguish between them. Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. It is a process for addressing imbalance, taking into account the diverse lived experiences of individuals, and adapting policies and practices accordingly.
Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances, and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. The goal of equity is to change systemic and structural barriers that get in the way of people's ability to thrive. Equity can be defined as giving everyone what they need to be successful. In other words, it's not giving everyone the exact same thing. If we give everyone the exact same thing, expecting that will make people equal, it assumes that everyone started out in the same place – an inaccurate picture, because people’s circumstances vary widely.
It's often assumed that 'being fair' means that everybody gets the same thing, a concept that becomes ingrained when we are growing up, but 'fairness' really only works when we all start out with the same circumstances and opportunities. Inequity affects many people, but historically it has most marginalized communities such as women, people of colour, disabled people, the economically disadvantaged, and those from the LGBTQ+ community. A shift from gender equality to the process of gender equity is therefore required for meaningful progress.
This International Women’s Day I’m going to #EmbraceEquity by celebrating and valuing difference. By acknowledging individuals for who they are and by helping to remove roadblocks to opportunity. For me this means actively listening to people and working with them to remove the barriers that stop them contributing as their true and authentic selves. Anything else is a waste of human potential. When there is less women economic empowerment, that equals less human capital value. Equity is the foundation from which to forge inclusive work cultures where women's careers thrive and their achievements are celebrated.
