Why equity - not equality - is central to building an inclusive organisation: Rashmi Dubé

Girls and women globally still face issues not just around equality but equity. Using the lens of the non-executive director, we can no longer afford to simply pay lip service to a growing social concern, particularly where ESG

(Environmental Social Governance) ought to be playing such a strong role in the purpose of any organisation and taking care of their stakeholders.

The business world can no longer live in isolation from the social conscience and issues if it really wants to be truly inclusive. Historically this has not

been the case. Women have been disadvantaged by a lack of an equal playing field.

Equality and equity have been used interchangeably but have very different meanings. Equality is the basis for fairness. Each person is given a box to stand on for instance, to look over the fence (despite their height or other restrictions). The resources are therefore distributed equally. This is often a thought process that everyone understands and believes to be fair, just, and equitable when in fact it is not.

In the analogy above, giving everyone a box to stand on to see over the fence is not actually fair if 1) one person does not require a box and 2) another person in fact requires one just to see over the fence.

Equity on the other hand recognises that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.

In the above scenario, equity might mean giving the taller person no box and another two. Most business are not trained in understanding equality, and in Western society fairness and equality are preached as common concepts and equity starts to become a harder pill to swallow, simply as it is perceived as unfair. That one person or group are being “favoured” when in fact all that is being done is levelling the playing field for everyone within the resources available.

Equity has the understanding that each person starts from a different place. For instance, women of colour have different issues from women who are white.

Women are therefore a diverse group and cannot be treated as the same.

It is therefore not enough for business to talk about “gender pay gap” alone. They need to look further on how they are understanding women as a diverse group of people and being totally inclusive in the organisation.

We need equity for women and girls everywhere on a societal level, starting with education in the schools and at home, to the political arena with government legalisation protecting women and girls offline and in the digital world. Then there are the worlds of commerce and organisations that operate in a commercial arena. These boards of directors need to envisage a sustainable approach for their human resources and embody equity and not interchange it with equality, because each group is different and within each group comes a range of diverse needs and backgrounds. Simply being fair and equal will not bring about true inclusion.

#EmbraceEquity today.

Rashmi Dubé is a partner at gunnercooke