Exploring the Concept of Equality - Essay Example

Critically Explore the Concept of Equality In the modern society, equality is widely applied. Equality is a social aspect that ensures every individual has the same equal opportunity as any other person in terms of living and utilizing their abilities and talents in a lucrative way. Equality disregards the differences that are associated with gender, race, sexuality, disability, ethnic backgrounds, and nationalities among others. The aspect of equality originated from the Britain anti-discrimination laws that were implemented in the late 20th century (Heywood 2004: 18). Britain’s main goal was to supplement the abolition of biased discrimination to particular social groups that operated under employment, education, as well as provision of services. The Equality Act that governs the aspect of equality derives its validity from various acts. These acts include: The Sex Discrimination Act, The Equal Pay Act, The Race Relations Act, and The Disability Discrimination Act among others (Heywood 2004:27). The Equality Act harmonizes all of these Acts and consolidates them to ensure the protection of interests. This paper will establish the notions behind equality and critically analyze its various concepts. Over the years, the world has made progress in its effort to establish an equal society. Outdated stereotypes that involve rigid reactions towards certain groups especially women are fading away slowly. The minority ethnic groups that lag behind in terms of development and literacy are beginning to catch up with the rest of the world. The disabled people currently have more rights in the recent years than ever before (Cooper & Mencken 1956: 77). The attitudes towards accepting these social models of disability continue to improve. There have also been changes in the perceptions towards sexual orientation. Studies conducted by YouGov in Britain reveal that about 90% of the citizens support the abolition of laws that discriminate people on the grounds of sexual orientation (UN DESA 2005: 49). Even though equality is guaranteed by most constitutions in the world, there are major challenges that face the society. For example, most women are earning lower wages as compared to men. Disabled people have a high chance of lacking educational or professional qualifications on issues regarding employment. Most families in Africa and low developed countries are living under poverty (Eichler 1997: 14). However, the Equality Act 2010 seeks to solve these social differences among others. Any individual that faces discrimination or harassments due to social differences now have a legal right to court action. This Act also ensures the upholding of protected characteristics. Protected characteristics incorporate the grounds upon which discrimination and inequality is regarded as unlawful. These characteristics include marriage and civil partnership, gender reassignment, disability, religion, age, as well as maternity and pregnancy (Eichler 1997: 16). Kallen (2006) among other scholars have argued that equality is a complicated phenomenon that incorporates a group of principles. These principles supplement each other to form a single notion that complements egalitarianism. Egalitarianism involves equality of basic needs, equal respect, economic quality, political equality, and the ethnic, racial, and sexual equality. The equality of basic needs suggest that every person has a right to satisfaction of basic needs. The egalitarians believe that the social difference that brings about deprivation and affluence characteristics should be abolished. Equal respect enables egalitarians to disregard any degrading treatments to particular groups of people (Osborn 1970: 34). They also fight back the deference policies that are carried out by the hierarchies in high social positions. There are huge differences in income and the wealth distribution gap is too wide. Equality seeks to ensure the proper and equitable distribution of production, as well as employment. Political equality does not only incorporate the right to vote but also the equitable democratic participation in social services, education sector, as well as the government. Political equality guarantees freedom of fair practice of arbitrary power, as well as individual empowerment (Osborn 1970: 34). The policies that advocate equal opportunities are in most cases established as strategic guidelines that seek to redress the willful ignoring of specific groups from participating in the economic, political and social life of the state. Exclusion in most cases occurs due to the social differences practiced in the society (Lester & Deakin 1967: 28). The strategic policies that seek to address equality include equity policies, liberal policies, as well as radical policies (Lester & Deakin 1967: 28). The equity policies seek to establish an existent form of fairness. Liberal policies, on the other hand, tend to deal with the upheaval of obstacles that are meant to control goods and services, business, trades, as well as institutions. Liberal policies have an underlying principle. This principle suggests that any person should begin from the same position as his or her neighbor and they should compete on an equal platform provided there are no barriers to development. Lastly, radical policies address the direct sources that tolerate societal inequality. Radical policies challenge the existing bias hierarchical systems. Such policies usually involve the use of quotas, as well as the preferential access procedures that are directed towards the minority group. Radical policies involve the preferential treatment of the society in a way that allows affirmative action. These three policies are supplemented by the existence of equality proofing. Equality proofing is an aspect of equality that deals with the effect that these policies may have to the society especially the marginalized people (Haywood 2004: 46). The proper legislation of equality proofing in various societies ensures the development of initiatives that impact groups experiencing inequality in a positive manner. Equality proofing also allows the provision of support to various activities geared towards community development by developing support programs that the excluded groups identify with. Without the effective application of equality proofing, the goals associated with the liberal, equitable and radical policies may not be realized. Equality is important to the society as it has numerous advantages (Roemer 1998: 61). Equality enables satisfaction to every individual in the society. It is characterized by the moral and justice aspects. From an overall perspective, the benefits of equality accrue to employees, organizations, women, as well as citizens. Equality emphasizes fair treatment and conduct regarding all people. Every person gets an equal opportunity to access basic goods and services and also ensures people fulfill and realize their self-actualization goals. Equality seeks to ensure fair conduct among people even though unavoidable differences may exist. Employees can work on bases of equality and access equal opportunities as their colleagues. Giving equal opportunities to the employees enables sufficient alternatives that allow the growth of an organization. Women have now become elites and are more outgoing to matters involving social developments in the society (Sen 2009: 17). Women can now access equal opportunities to men and their social and professional aspects have drastically improved. In this modern era, improvements in social relations as well as the improvement in life quality cannot be achieved by material wealth (Juteau 2003: 9). Even though the increased uneven distribution of material wealth causes deterioration in the society operations, equality requires complex procedures that ensure equitable distribution of resources. Studies indicate that rich and developed market democracies that do not practice equality among its citizens have numerous social problems (Juteau 2003: 10). Such problems include; high rates of violence, increased rates of imprisonment, teenage births as well as abortions, low social mobility, high infant mortality rates, and low life expectancy among others. The persistent widening in the social ladder results to damaging of the social cohesion. Status competition persistence leads to the increase in social status differences that compromise the bases that support equality. Status anxieties tend to affect the equality option in a profound way. Social mobility also increases when equality among people increases. The advantages and social benefits that the wealthy class possesses tend to be more evenly distributed in equal societies as compared to less equal societies. Equality has an intrinsic value (Stewart 2007: 14). The focus of societies to promote equitable opportunities does not prove to be a means to an end. Most of the societies have an underlying interest regarding equity and justice. Frequent surveys indicate that a lot of nationals perceive and tolerate the existence of inequality only if everyone is given an equal starting point same as his counterpart fellow citizen (Stewart 2007: 15). Even though there are some objections as to whether equality has intrinsic values, most of the social elites disregard this aspect. Some of them argue that the opinions leveled against using equality for development are based along conceptions of equality that are misunderstood and misguided by the public. An example of such critique notions of equity is that some of the political debates constantly argue that poor people should be blamed for their state. They disregard the notion behind unequal distribution of resources and argue that the society offers everyone equal opportunities to access of financial, as well as economic resources. They also base their arguments on the equality of opportunity concept that suggest people ought to have equal employment opportunities irrespective of gender, class, religion, ethnicity or any other social difference. Social evils such as corruption, however, prevent equality from fully realizing its objectives. Even though laws governing equality of opportunity are implemented, social drawbacks such as corruption and the lack of proper implementation act as a disincentive to equality. The society through the help of the state should ensure that such drawbacks are minimized (Rawls 1971, 46-48). It is evident that equality is a key factor that ensures the development and positive progress of the society. Equality is also complementary to various societal advocacies such as political liberty and rights. Equality has a positive impact in ensuring economic growth, as well as the effective functioning of the society. Good practices have to be ensured in order to ensure equality is achieved. Strategic approaches are formulated to ensure the law outlines minimum policies that people must ensure to uphold equality in the society. Strategic approaches may also require people to look beyond the law requirements in their effort to proactively promote equality. Strategic policies that promote equality should have well defined equality policies, as well as defined targets that incorporate the necessary resources responsible for promoting equity. In an organizational culture, every organization must ensure to uphold equity among its staff and clients. This action ensures that the organization is efficient and productive both in terms of customer satisfaction and employee productivity. Bibliography Cooper, J. F., & Mencken, H. L. (1956). The American democrat, or, Hints on the social and civic relations of the United States of America. New York, Vintage Books. Eichler, M. (1997). Family shifts: families, policies, and gender equality. Toronto, Oxford University Press. Heywood, A. (2004). Political theory: an introduction. New York, Palgrave Macmillan. Juteau, D. (2003) Social Differentiation: Patterns and Processes. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Kallen, S. A. (2006). Does equality exist in America? Farmington Hills, MI, Greenhaven Press/Thomson Gale. Lester, A. P. L., & Deakin, N. (1967). Policies for racial equality. London, Fabian Society. Osborn, R. J. (1970). Soviet social policies: welfare, equality, and community. Homewood, Ill, Dorsey Press. Rawls, J. (1971) A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. Roemer, J. (1998) Equality of Opportunity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Sen, A. (2009) The Idea of Justice. London: Penguin. Stewart, F. (2007). Addressing Discrimination and Inequality among Groups. 2020 Focus Brief on the World’s Poor and Hungry People. Washington, DC: IFPRI. UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2005). The Inequality Predicament: Report on the World Social Situation. New York: UN DESA Read More