Equity, not just equality
CEO Lucy Budge explains how #EmbracingEquity is at the heart of our work at My Sisters’ House
This coming Wednesday, 8 March, marks International Women’s Day (IWD). International Women’s Day has been celebrated for around 112 years, with the first gathering being held in 1911.
The website for International Women's Day 2023, defines IWD as “a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.
The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality.”
This definition ties in perfectly with the theme of the day for this year’s International Women’s Day: #EmbraceEquity.
But, what is this about?
Equity or equality?
There can be some confusion about the difference between the meanings of the words ‘equality’ and ‘equity.’ Merriam-Webster Equality vs. Equity: What is the Difference? helpfully describes the concepts of ‘sameness’ versus ‘fairness’ to explore the differences .
Whilst equality refers to making the same resources and opportunities available to everyone, the idea of equity is that every individual has different needs, and may require different resources and opportunities, to achieve the same outcome.
As a tall person, my favourite analogy for this is thinking about something on a high shelf. Whilst both a tall and a shorter person might be entirely free to access this shelf and its contents (equality), equity would mean that a shorter person had a step to stand on, to reach it. I won’t labour the point, as the IWD website has a lot more really helpful and interesting information, discussion and examples. Equality versus Equity: What's the difference as we #EmbraceEquity for IWD 2023 and beyond?
Equity and My Sisters’ House
But, what does embracing equity mean for MSH, generally, and as we gear up to our own IWD celebrations?
Embracing equity runs through the DNA of My Sisters’ House.
We want to give the women we work with the tools and skills to achieve the most that they can, regardless of their circumstances and experiences.
We know that everyone who comes to us is individual and that the support needs – and the ways in which we meet them - will look different for each woman.
We will work to ensure that their path of support through MSH is the right one for each woman; that the tools and skills they are given are appropriate for their needs, and that we are the most appropriate organisation to provide these. As we change and grow as an organisation, we constantly look for ways that our support provision can be as equitable as possible. For example, we may recognise that we can offer a group in Bognor, which is open to all women in our geographical areas, but isn’t it better that we also run that group in Chichester, and online, in order to improve access to that group for a wider cohort of women? That is striving for equity.
Celebrating our local women
In thinking about our International Women’s Day plans, we wanted to host an event, this year, that both embraces equity and celebrates our international community. We hosted an open morning in our Chichester Hub on Saturday 4 March, open to all women, and in which we welcomed members of our international community.
We know that we serve areas with high numbers of women from Eastern European, Portuguese and refugee communities, as well as international students from our local higher and further education providers. We are keen to welcome all women to discuss the support that we can offer, and how we can do so equitably. We have produced details of our services in some of the languages we know are spoken locally, but we are keen to look with our international community at how else we can support them to access our services, in terms of interpreters, and other assistance that might remove barriers to accessing our support.
Providing the steps
It is well documented that women are still disproportionately likely to suffer from disadvantage in multiple areas of life, especially during times of economic crisis, like the one we are living through. My Sisters’ House exists to create a more equitable world for local women with multiple and complex needs, trying to provide the ‘step’ so that they have equal access to the same opportunities and resources on the ‘high shelf’ that other people may be able to access more easily.
IWD events this week
Find out about the event we are running or taking part in for International Women’s Day: International Women’s Day 2023