Word of the Week: W/C 28/09/15 - Equality

​The state of being equal, especially in status, rights, or opportunities.

Image: ja.wikipedia.org

Equality is an important concept in the modern era; the rise of Human Rights since the end of WW2 and the enactment of various laws and conventions on Human Rights has brought it to the attention of the majority. To many in the West it is difficult to imagine a time when people were not seen as equal - thankfully many of the world’s major regimes that discriminated against minorities (or even majorities) have come to an end; Apartheid in South Africa, Genocide in Rwanda and Segregation in the USA. Of course there are many situations across the world where Human Rights abuses are still being committed and many charities are working hard to highlight these abuses.

Whilst there may be laws in place to ensure equality in the UK we should not be complacent. There is still a great deal of inequality in the UK. Here I want to focus on two areas where many are still not given equality through unconscious bias - this is where people, without being aware, discriminate against people who are different to them.

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Sexism (Gender bias) is the act of discriminating against someone because of their Gender. It can affect any gender but it is particularly documented against women. Whilst many men are keen to argue that they are in favour of equal rights for women this is not, for reasons that are highly complex, bourne out when we look at the statistics.  The website Feminista gives the following facts about women at work:

• The full time gender pay gap is 10%, and the average part-time pay gap is 34.5%.
• It is estimated that for each year a mother is absent from the workplace her future wages will reduce by 5%.
• Approximately 70% of people in national minimum wage jobs are women.
• Women make up only 17% board directors of FTSE 100 companies.
• Up to 30,000 women are sacked each year simply for being pregnant and each year an estimated 440,000 women lose out on pay or promotion as a result of pregnancy.

There is a very interesting debate to be had about why these statistics are the case; some argue that the fact that women have children means that some inequality is inevitable. Many others however argue that the level of difference is not acceptable and evidence of a much more malevolent sexism in society.

Disability Bias is the act of discriminating against a person because they are disabled. Some charities suggest that around 10% of the world’s population live with a disablity (http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/statistics/ accessed: 25/09/15). Discrimination that this group face could be a lack of access to transport, goods and services; difficulty in securing a job and promotion; or simply the way they are treated by others. A fantastic short film to gain a sense of what it must be like to experience disability bias is “Talk” produced by the Disability Rights Commission (This version has Audio Description in order to make it accessible to the visually impaired):