What’s the difference? Why should I care? How has this impacted me?
You can answer all those questions and more with this article on equity vs equality!
Today we are going to talk about the difference between equity and equality, and why understanding that difference is so important for our society!
So, what is equality?
Equality is defined as... "the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities.” - Oxford Languages and Google
Equality is really important in understanding human rights! For instance, it might be necessary that people are guaranteed equal rights under the eyes of the law. However, our society has a history of hundreds of years of treating people unequally, and sometimes this means that starting to treat people equally now, still isn’t enough to make up for those hundreds of years of difference in opportunity and treatment. This can create situations for people where they are still being treated unfairly, even though they are being treated equally.
In reality, this issue is complicated. But here is a simplified example:
Say that your family has a rule that all children must go to bed at 8 pm. This means that a child who is 6 years old, and a child who is 12 years old would both have to go to bed at 8 pm. They are being treated equally, but there’s something that doesn’t seem quite right about that. This is where treating people equitably can come into play.
So, what is equity?
Equity is defined by the World Health Organization as “the absence of avoidable or remediable differences among groups of people, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically, or geographically.” - World Health Organization
Equity is important because it considers the needs of the individuals and communities, instead of just giving everyone equal treatment.
To continue with our example from earlier, the children are very different ages, and so they have different needs for the amount of sleep they need to live healthy lives. Taking this into consideration, the 6-year-old might need to go to bed by 8 pm to get a proper amount of sleep. However, the 12-year-old might need to go to bed by 10 pm to get enough sleep. In this example, the children are being treated more equitably since their individual needs were taken into consideration, rather than just applying the same rule to everyone equally.
Here is a visual representation of what that might look like. Have you seen this image before? What’s going on in this photo?
What I notice is that in the image under “Equality”, each person is being given 1 box to stand on, so technically they are being treated equally. However, the person on the right, who is shorter still cannot see! So not all the people’s needs are being met.
In the image under “Equity”, all of the people can now see because assistance was given to them according to their needs. However, can you think of any other ways that this could be achieved? Or any problems with these images? Take a second to think about it.
So, what’s different about the image on the very right here?
Do you notice how the barrier has been removed? Instead of providing some people different amounts of assistance than others, the barrier that had been set up has been removed. This is what it might look like to fix the system which had originally benefited some and created impenetrable barriers for others. This is a much more effective way of creating lasting change in our society.
So, how does this relate to education and STEM?
Many times when we picture a scientist, we might think of someone who looks like this:
And the world doesn’t show us scientists who look like this:
So why does that happen? Society has held up the stories of people in power and hidden the stories of many, many others. We are beginning to learn those stories and that is so powerful. So remember, even if you don’t see yourself represented in media or science, or you encounter barriers, know that it is the fault of a deeply flawed society and that you ARE amazing, loved, smart, and capable of achieving your dreams.
YOU are BRILLIANT and YOU can be a SCIENTIST!
Looking for more fun at home STEM activities for your young scientist? Check out our workbook full of exciting science experiments and empowering activities!
