What's the Difference Between Equity and Equality?

Equity and equality are two strategies we can use in an effort to produce fairness. Equity is
giving everyone what they need to be successful. Equality is treating everyone the
same. Equality aims to promote fairness, but it can only work if everyone starts from the same
place and needs the same help.

A frequently cited illustration External link (shown below) showing the difference
between equality and equity External link is that of three individuals of different heights who are
attempting to peer over a fence. In order to treat them equally, they would all be given the same
size box to stand on to improve their lines of sight. However, doing so wouldn't necessarily help
the shortest person see as well as the tallest person. In order to give equitable treatment, each
person would need to be given a box to stand on that would enable a clear view over the fence.

Credit: Interaction Institute for Social Change External link

Artist: Angus Maguire External link

According to the World Health Organization External link (WHO), equity is "the absence of
avoidable or remediable differences among groups of people, whether those groups are defined
socially, economically, demographically or geographically." Therefore, as the WHO notes,
health inequities involve more than lack of equal access to needed resources to maintain or
improve health outcomes. They also refer to difficulty when it comes to "inequalities that
infringe on fairness and human rights norms."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention External link (CDC) refers to health
inequities and health disparities interchangeably as "types of unfair health differences closely
linked with social, economic or environmental disadvantages that adversely affect groups of
people." As such, equity is a process External link and equality is an outcome of that process.
Or, as the Race Matters Institute External link describes, "The route to achieving equity will not
be accomplished through treating everyone equally. It will be achieved by treating everyone
equitably, or justly according to their circumstances."

Understanding the difference between health equality and health equity is important to public
health External link to ensure that resources are directed appropriately — as well as supporting
the ongoing process of meeting people where they are. Inherent to this process is the promotion
of diversity in teams and personnel, public health practice, research methods and other related
factors. For these reasons, providing the same type and number of resources to all is not enough.
In order to reduce the health disparities gap, the underlying issues and individual needs of
underserved and vulnerable populations must be effectively addressed.

Equity in Action
There are many successful initiatives External link in communities around the United States
where specific steps have been taken to make approaches to health more equitable. Attempts to
achieve equity have involved identifying the individualized needs of specific populations and
implementing steps to help meet those needs. Some were created through the CDC's Healthy
Communities Program, such as Project Brotherhood External link — a clinic for black men at
Woodlawn Health Center in Chicago. The clinic was formed by a black physician and a nurse-
epidemiologist who were interested in better addressing the health needs of black men.
Partnering with a black social science researcher, they conducted focus groups with black men to
learn about their experiences with the health care system, and met with other black staff at the
clinic. As a result of this research, Project Brotherhood employed a number of specific strategies,
including:

 Offering free health care, with optional appointments and evening clinic hours to make
health care more accessible to black men.
 Providing health seminars and courses specifically for black men.
 Employing a barber who received health education training to perform free haircuts and
to be a health advocate for black men that the clinic staff could not reach.
 Providing fatherhood classes to help black men become more effectively involved in the
lives of their children.
 Building "a culturally competent workforce able to create a safe, respectful, male-friendly
environment and to overcome mistrust in black communities toward the traditional health
care system."
 Organizing physician participation in support group discussions to enhance
understanding between providers and patients.
According to the organization, positive outcomes were achieved: "In January 1999, Project
Brotherhood averaged 4 medical visits and 8 group participants per week. By September 2005,
the average grew to 27 medical visits and 35 group participants per week … ." By 2007, Project
Brotherhood had provided service to over 13,000 people since the initiative started and created a
health services environment designed specifically for black men where they would be respected,
heard and empowered, thus helping to reduce the health disparities experienced by this
population.

Another organization that has made strides toward increased equity is Poder es Salud (Power for
Health), a partnership involving nonprofits, government organizations, local health care
providers, and several community and faith-based groups. This partnership was formed to
address social determinants of health and reduce health disparities in black and Latino
communities in Multnomah County, Oregon, by employing an approach to "increase social
capital through durable social networks for the purpose of facilitating the achievement of
community goals and health outcomes." This was achieved through three specific strategies:

 Community-based participatory research to support cross-cultural partnerships.

 Popular education, which involves mutual learning and analysis.
 Providing community health workers (CHWs) with specialized training "in leadership,
local politics, governance structure, advocacy, community organizing, popular education,
and health."

Program effectiveness was reflected in follow-up surveys that showed "significant improvements
in social support, self-rated health and mental health among community members that
participated in the interventions with Community Health Workers who use popular education."

An additional example of a successful health equity initiative is Project BRAVE: Building and
Revitalizing an Anti-Violence Environment External link . Project BRAVE is a school-based
intervention that builds on existing relationships among schools, community members,
community-based organizations and local researchers. In doing so, Project BRAVE supports pre-
existing opportunities for students to share their experiences with violence and to take part in
community change to reduce it. The program's effectiveness was evidenced by an increase in
school attendance, which is an important social determinant of community health.

Moving Forward
Understanding the difference between equity and equality is a key component in the effort to
reduce health disparities among vulnerable populations. The good news is that public health
officials can take specific steps to help address this confusion in their own communities —
including using educational resources such as the CDC's Defining and Measuring Disparities,
Inequities, and Inequalities in the Healthy People Initiative External link and group exercises
such as those suggested by JustHealthAction.org External link in which teams can work together
to differentiate between equity and equality.

We’d like to hear from you! How have you heard these terms used or misused? What issues
related to equity have you witnessed in your own community? What is being done to address
them and what could be improved? Tell us in the comments or via our Twitter External
link and Facebook External link channels.

Equality Is Not Enough: What the

Classroom Has Taught Me About Justice
September 16, 2014 by Amy Sun

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Source: Mind Out Conference

Imagine this situation: A classroom of students is settling down to work on a
writing task. All of a sudden, one student exclaims, “That’s not fair! Why do
they get to listen to the instructions on the headphones! I want to listen, too!”

This happens way more often than you think. Not because teachers are
inherently unfair creatures (I would know; I’m a teacher), but because students
have come to understand “fairness” as simply equal treatment.

You’re familiar with this playground mentality of fairness: “I get two crackers,
and you two crackers” or “I play with the ball for twenty minutes, and then you
play with it for twenty minutes.”

Others are starting to question this “Sharing is Caring” idea and over-simplistic
expectations of fairness.

Because here’s the thing: Treating everyone exactly the same actually is not fair.
What equal treatment does do is erase our differences and promote privilege.
Let me break it down.

Teaching middle and high school students taught me all I needed to know
about fairness and the persistence of privilege. Here are the two main lessons
I learned.

1. When Everyone Is Different, Fairness and Success Also

Differs
An important conversation I have with my students is around the idea of equity
versus equality. What do “fairness” and “success” really mean when we know
that everyone is so different?

Equity and equality are two strategies we can use in an effort to produce
fairness.

Equity is giving everyone what they need to be successful. Equality is treating

everyone the same.

Equality aims to promote fairness, but it can only work if everyone starts from
the same place and needs the same help. Equity appears unfair, but it actively
moves everyone closer to success by “leveling the playing field.”

But not everyone starts at the same place, and not everyone has the same
needs.

Classrooms, for example, are made up of different learners. This means that
students enter the classroom with different learning styles (such as visual,
auditory, or tactile). You can take this short quiz to figure out your own
learning style.

Visual learners and auditory learners will process information differently and,
thus, have different needs. If the teacher always lectures, auditory learners
have the advantage.

So it doesn’t matter that the outraged student wants to listen to the audiotape
to complete the writing task. What matters is whether the student needs to
listen to directions on an audiotape in order to be successful with the writing
task.

Since everyone is different and we embrace these differences as unique, we must also
redefine our basic expectations for fairness and success as contingent upon those
individual differences.

In the real world, this means that some people will need a language translator
when speaking to a government agency and others will not. And it wouldn’t be
fair to just provide Spanish translators just because it is the language most
people speak. A Spanish translator would not allow a Korean speaker the
same access to opportunities.

That would be privilege.

Privilege is when we make decisions that benefit enough people, but not all
people. Privilege is allowed to continue when we wrap it up with actions of
equality.

On the outside, everything appears fair, because how can we argue against
equal treatment? When we uncover the equality blanket, we see that not
everyone’s needs are met.

Take gender for example.

Fairness between genders doesn’t mean that everyone should become the
same. The end goal is not for men and women to reach a complete
genderless state. It means that men and women should be given the same
opportunities to succeed despite their differences. Check out the United Nations
Population Fund for more on gender equality.

We need to recognize our differences as unique, rather than reach for one
definition of “success.” By upholding just one definition of success, we actively
erase our differences. Our differences are not the obstacles.

2. We Need to Engage in Equitable Practices

Fixing the systematic obstacles (rather than fixing individual differences)
requires us to be more intentional, but the extra work pays off.
If we cannot blame our differences, then we must look to systematic
obstacles. Would we assess a fish’s success by its ability to climb a tree? No
way. In fact, Albert Einstein once claimed that “Everybody is a genius. But if
you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing
that it is stupid.” So why do we insist on administering the same test in the
same paper-pencil format to a classroom of diverse students?

As a teacher, this means I must reexamine my classroom system to allow all

my students to reach success. My system has to change. I must, yes, think
about every student, because my class must help every student learn.
This is called “differentiated instruction” in the classroom, and we need it in
the real world, too. We need to recognize the needs of individuals and change
our actions to fit those needs.

Take a look at the cartoon below.

Source: Peytral Publications

This teacher is diligently shoveling snow off the stairs to allow the majority of
the students to get inside the building. Instead of shoveling snow off the stairs
first, the teacher could shovel the ramp to allow all students access – not just
abled bodies.

This is worth repeating: “But if you shovel the ramp, we can all get in.”

Often times, decisions are made to benefit the majority of people without
paying attention to individual needs and nuances. Instead of gender-specific
restrooms, we could offer gender-neutral restrooms to allow everyone access
to restrooms – not just those who fit within the men or women boxes.
Privilege is a tricky thing.

I’m not aware of my privilege on a daily basis – no one is. I don’t get up in the
morning and wonder if I will “pass” because I am a cisgender woman who
generally loves her body. I don’t feel a bit of my privilege when I sit in an hour-
long lecture because I don’t have any learning needs or when I’m asked which
college I graduated from or when I walk up a long flight of stairs. (I just feel
pain in my calves. Oh, my life is just terrible, because the escalators are
broken again.)

Usually I am just unaware of my own privilege, because the system generally works
in my favor.

What does the other side of privilege feel like?

Jeremy Dowsett says it feels kind of like riding on roads built for cars. For a
biker, the roads are dangerous. Not intentionally. Most drivers aren’t trying to
be jerks. It’s just that the traffic rules and road system simply wasn’t made to
work for both cars and bikes to coexist peacefully. Cars and bikes are
different. And the truth is that “the whole transportation infrastructure
privileges the automobile.”

So the system is flawed when it does not meet everyone’s needs.

Can we change the whole system? Rarely. What we can do is advocate for
equitable practices in order to promote fairness. This requires extra work.

In the classroom, I will lesson plan for different students’ needs and learning
styles. I will design stations that allow for use of technology, exploration,
traditional book work, and even art – which can (and should) be done for all
levels. The extra work is worth it because the key is to allow everyone to
succeed. I need to practice equity in order to truly be fair.

We can no longer rely on blanket practices just because they appear fair. Our
actions actually have to elicit justice.

Take a look at this famous cartoon regarding equity and equality.

 Source: Out Front Minnesota
Each child is of a different height. We can’t change that. In order to insure that
every child has access to the baseball game, we can provide them with boxes
to stand on.

But we can’t just bring one-sized boxes to lift everyone up. That’s equality, and
equality does not always elicit true fairness. We need to put in the extra work and
give everyone what they need.

***

The first step to justice is being able to recognize it. Do you know the
difference between equity and equality? Test yourself here.

Audre Lorde maintains, “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our
inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”

So look around you. What differences do you notice? And how can you
incorporate these differences into the everyday decisions you make?

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Amy Sun is a Contributing Writer for Everyday Feminism. She has worked
with providing resources and support for Asian/Pacific Islander survivors of
domestic violence in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia areas. She also holds her
Masters in Women’s Studies from the George Washington University, where
she has researched the coming out processes for trans* who identify as FTM
and MTF.