2.1 Equality and diversity

The concept of equality is an important one to understand, and it can be confused with the idea of treating everyone the same. When thinking about access to services, for example, treating people ‘the same’ would only result in equality if everyone had the same opportunities available to them. There are, however, inequalities in society arising from attitudes as well as differences in, for example, wealth, education and influence.

What is equality? Equality does not mean treating people the same but is rather about valuing difference. Difference should not result in people having less value or worth. Equality can be understood as an absence of discrimination.  

We often hear the words ‘equality’ and ‘equity’ used. They sound similar and sometimes people use them to mean the same thing, however they are different.

Figure 1 explains this by making a distinction between ‘equality’ and ‘equity’. In the first part of the illustration, each person is treated the same, or equally, but the result is not equity as their characteristics are not the same. Treating them the same results in inequity. In the second part of the illustration, each person is treated differently, but the result is equity – they all have the same access and so none are disadvantaged.

Figure 1 Equality vs Equity

Show description|Hide description

An illustration of the distinction between equality and equity. To the left are three children of different heights, who are looking over a fence to watch a race. One child is very tall, the second is of medium height, while the third child is the shortest. They are all standing on boxes of the same size, which are intended to help them to see the race better. The tallest child can easily see over the fence and doesn’t really need to stand on a box at all. However, the smallest child cannot see over the fence even though he is standing on his box.

On the right of the illustration are the same three children, but this time things have been adapted to meet their real needs. So the tallest child is not standing on a box, the medium child is standing on one box as before. Meanwhile, the shortest child is standing on two boxes placed one on top of the other. All three children are now well able to see the race.

Figure 1 Equality vs Equity

Treating people differently in order to achieve a fairer outcome is sometimes referred to as ‘positive discrimination’ – or, in other words, treating people differently in order to balance or compensate for inherent inequality.

Social care practitioners/professionals, therefore, need to be aware not only of diversity, or the differences between people, but also of the ways in which such differences may result in disadvantage. British Association of Social Workers (BASW) (2015) describes diversity as being multidimensional and suggests that it includes race, disability, class, economic status, age, sexuality, gender (including transgender identity), faith and belief.

Some aspects of people’s identity are known as ‘protected characteristics’ which are covered by law in the Equality Act 2010 (for England, Wales and Scotland) and In Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 (for Northern Ireland). This means that someone cannot be treated less favourably, subject to unfair disadvantage or discriminated against because of:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• being married or in a civil partnership
• being pregnant or on maternity leave
• race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
• religion, beliefs or political opinion
• sex
• sexual orientation

Social care practitioners/professionals should have an awareness of the ways in which such characteristics can result in differences in power, which can lead to people being marginalised, or indeed privileged, in their access to services.