The goal of Equality and Diversity work is summed up in the following definition:
The Equalities Review’s Final Report, Fairness and Freedom:
"An equal society protects and promotes equal, real freedom and substantive opportunity to live in the ways people value and would choose, so that everyone can flourish. An equal society recognises people’s different needs, situations and goals, and removes the barriers that limit what people can do and can be.”
Communities and Local Government publications, February 2007
This definition recognises:
- That we need to help disadvantaged individuals reach their goals, although this is only part of the story,
- That we all share some of the responsibility for setting the conditions in which we can improve our own life chances, and for making sure that we are all treated with equal dignity and worth.
- Different needs and identities, and provides for equal participation in society.
- Our diversity: equality does not mean sameness, nor should an equal society try to force everyone into the same mould. On the contrary, the pursuit of equality is about empowering people to live their dreams, to be themselves and to be different, if they wish.
The definition captures three important aspects of the approach, which is reflected in this BLOG:
- opportunity: whether everyone really has the same substantive freedom to flourish;
- agency: what degree of choice and control an individual has in achieving the valued activity; and
- process: whether discrimination (or some other barrier or process) causes or contributes to a particular inequality
You will find these themes picked up in this BLOG over time.
