The difference between equality and equity really matters – and it’s something I’ve seen play out over and over again – in business and in life.
As you read through these examples, you might start to consider or remember similar stories – of your own, or that you’ve witnessed – where inequity has been a factor, but you maybe didn’t see it at the time.
One example that came to mind in my early stages of research was a personal experience at work.
I managed a customer service team that had shifts covering the business opening hours of 8am to 6pm. I’m a night owl, so I’d often arrive somewhere between 8:30 and 9:30am, but I stayed late often to match the needs of the role. A colleague who worked shorter, fixed hours would see me arrive and had assumed I was slacking. He put in an official complaint to our Director, and instead of explaining our different ways of working, our Director told me I needed to change to a fixed start time – just to avoid confusion.
It wasn’t the first time. In another earlier (senior management) role, I left early one day after working until 10pm the night before on an urgent assignment. One of my peers saw me leave and reported me. Thankfully, this time my Director (different one) told me to ignore it, but also didn’t specifically stand up for workplace flexibility, which is what I wanted to see happen.
Now that I know I’m neurodiverse, my preference for flexibility makes even more sense.
I’ve consistently struggled with rigid schedules, even though I’ve always been committed and hardworking. That’s why I work for myself now – where output and outcomes matter more than clock-watching. It matters when I hear people put others down for “not trying hard enough” – when actually, the playing field was never level to begin with. It matters when someone shrugs off the challenges others face because “things are fair now.”
That kind of thinking makes me feel deeply uncomfortable. Fairness isn’t about everyone getting the same. It’s about recognising what’s needed for each person to thrive – and making room for that.
I needed equity not equality in these scenarios.
If equity had been applied, my work would’ve been judged by the value I delivered and the hours my role required – not by whether I arrived and left at the same time as someone else.
This is quite a simple example and may not seem like a big issue. But when I reflect back on how it made me feel, and when I then also start to think of bigger, more-impactful examples, I can see that it all matters – whether it seems insignificant or not.
Often, if it doesn’t affect us, we don’t see it at all.
Or we don’t think it’s a big enough problem to warrant any kind of intervention or pivotal shift in how the world works.
Other examples from my own life were more uncomfortable.
For example, being the only woman in another senior leadership team. My collaborative and caring approach was often seen as weakness because it didn’t match the dominant, more aggressive style of most of the male managers who were my peers.
Meetings were incredibly difficult for me – as an introverted woman, the only way I would ever be heard in amongst the loud voices in the room was to try to be louder and more assertive than them – extremely uncomfortable for me, and highly likely the reason I often find myself trying to avoid conflict now. Add in the fact that assertive, loud behaviour is often viewed differently coming from women and wasn’t how I was ‘expected’ to behave, so unfortunately – there was really no way for me to win.
If equality means we’re all expected to lead the same way, equity means recognising that different styles – like mine – can create happier, high-performing teams.
Equity values impact, not just appearances
(This is the second part in a series – the introduction to the series is here, and Part 1.1 is here)
