The difference in outcomes of Gender Equity vs. Gender Equality

Why is Gender Equity our focus and not Gender Equity? What is the crucial difference between the two?

There is no equality without equity. Equality is the goal but equity is the means, yet gender equality has become the most mainstream.

The focus of gender equality is that women will have parity with men, but how is this achievable if there is no parity amongst women themselves?

While it is great to see that organisations are increasingly recognising the benefits of a truly equitable workforce, by developing targets, metrics and tangible actions, one of the unintentional consequences as a result of gender equality, is that we bypass gender equity, discriminating against women with intersectional identities. This perpetuates the existing social norms, meaning the voices and experiences that need to be most amplified, are those that are most ignored.

Part of closing the experience chasm starts with recognising the importance of intra-gender equity and the intersection of the way a woman’s career develops coupled with the impact on her ability to successfully navigate the workplace, due to her hierarchical position.

Gender equality will lead companies to focus on recruiting in order to show a gender-balanced workplace, whereas the catalyst for gender equity is retention. This means taking a systemic approach to fix the workplace, whether it be from an intra-gender pay gap or a general employee experience perspective, which is crucial in understanding fundamental differences.

Our design, methodology and approach help organisations understand baseline issues, which influence policy and governance structures. Defining the issues that have the most impact on a business — identifying, refining, and assessing their most “material”  culture and governance issues which helps shape sustainability strategy, prioritise activities, and ensure that strategy, messaging, execution and reporting are aligned.

 We guide our clients in this paradigm shift moving towards gender equity ensuring a that their strategy is well established, integrating considerations across the value chain, which help them protect and create value by, for example, improving the employee experience, centring the voices and experiences of those most impacted, which then improves operational efficiency, stimulating product innovation, driving gender equity and reducing employee turnover.