International Women's Day 2023
Today is International Women’s Day and the theme is #EmbraceEquity. The aim is to get the world talking about why 'equal opportunities are no longer enough'. Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances, and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.
Ysgrifennwyd gan Fiona
—08 Maw, 2023
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 - and this can be vastly inaccurate because everyone isn't the same.
The concept of 'fairness' can get tricky as it's often assumed that 'being fair' means that everybody gets the same thing. Often, this has been taught when we were growing up, but 'fairness' really only works when we're all the same to start out with.
Celebrating International Women's Day
Equity-based verses equality-based solutions
People who push for equality-based solutions to social issues may believe in impartiality, and that there should be no difference in services and policies.
However, equity-based solutions take into account the diverse lived experiences of individuals and communities, adapting services and policies according to these differences.
Equity is a long-term and sustainable solution, and is a process for addressing imbalanced social systems.
Through Equity we can achieve equality. People's needs aren't always the same and we as an employer and housing provider recognise that people need different things to succeed.
We actively encourage staff and our residents to speak up and acknowledge that not everyone has same abilities and not everyone is starting from the same place. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances, and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.
At Melin one of our values is Together We Can, We is always stronger than me. What are you doing to make it your mission to spread the word of the need for equity?
Let's #EmbraceEquity - together!
Strike the #EmbraceEquity pose