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Not the Easy Equalities Issues

Introduction

There are a bunch of issues, some of which arise naturally from the main equalities activity, and some of which occupy similar territory but are not in the official list.

Arising From Equalities Activity

• The role of outsiders.  To what extent can and should outsiders get involved with the activities of, and the running of, an equalities group?  For example, should a Feminist group welcome men on an equal opportunities basis, or are they incapable of understanding the issues and finding appropriate ways of challenging the status quo?
• Internecine warfare.  There are often several groups claiming to be 'the voice' of a specific equalities group.  This is particularly problematic with race, as there are so many specific racial groups, each of which can identify inequality and injustice which particularly affects them.  And these groups can be quite hostile to each other.
• Victimhood  competition.  Different equalities groups often compete: for funding, for publicity, for priority in the legislation process.  Inevitably that results in some 'we are treated worse than they are' arguments.   And people who belong to one disadvantaged group can be just as prejudiced against members of other disadvantaged groups as anyone else.
• Cooperation and intersectionality.  On the other hand, it can be easier to argue for justice and funding if different equalities groups cooperate.  And there is an increased recognition of the reality of intersectionality: the additional problems faced by people who are members of more than one equalities group: the classic example is that of black women, who face discrimination which has is not been properly recognized by either the racial equality or the gender equality groups.
• Positive discrimination.  How much is discrimination acceptable if it operates to the benefit of a disadvantaged group?  Is all discrimination bad, or are (for example) women-only short-lists acceptable when selecting a prospective parliamentary candidate?
• The end goal of equalities campaigning.  It is not clear much of the time where the end goal might be.  This does not matter much when you are campaigning against an obvious injustice (paying women less for the same work, policemen killing black people with impunity, ...), but it does matter once the obvious injustice has been addressed.  The goal is a fair society, but different people have different ideas about what is fair.  Not being allowed an opportunity because of your sex or skin colour is unjust, and not wanting the opportunity may be the unfair consequence of past discrimination, but it may also be a valid personal choice.  Women tend to have less success in the workplace because they tend to prioritize caring for children more than men do: is this an injustice which should be corrected, or a valid choice which should be respected?
• Discrimination.  The use of the term 'discrimination' is problematic in this context: it assumes a negative outcome (unless it is positive discrimination, in which case it is, perhaps, okay), but discrimination as such, the ability to correctly distinguish real differences, is generally a good thing.  The purpose of an exam is to discriminate between the students who understand the subject and those who do not.  The purpose of a medical test is to discriminate between patients who do or do not have a particular condition, so they can be treated for it.
• Mainstreaming.  How much do we need specialist groups to focus on equalities issues, and how much should they become part of the normal mainstream activity?  This issue arises in many different contexts.  Should there be specialist government departments?  Should an equalites review be a standing item on our meeting agenda, or should it be properly addressed in each of the main agenda items?

Similar Territory

• Male violence and toxic masculinity.  Women's groups validly identify the extent to which women are subject to male violence, but they often miss the wider context, and the extent to which men are the victims of male violence.  To what extent is this problematic violence part of what it means to be male?  Violence, of course, is not just a human trait: a recent study of mammals killing their own species found that males do it far more than females, and they usually kill for very different reasons - males to remove competition, and females to defend their young.
• Education.  Many disadvantaged groups do worse than average in education: to what extent is this a consequence of their disadvantage interfering with the education, and to what extent is it the education system being designed to work well for certain groups?  Boys perform better when exams are used, and girls perform better when continuous assessment is used: how much should this information influence our choice of assessment?
• Class.  Power runs in families; money, resources, influence and connections are all inherited.  it used to be the case in the UK that certain groups were explicitly excluded from positions of power and influence, but much of the current work of equalities campaigners is seeking to address the consequences of their particular issue for poor people.  How much equalities activity is in reality a roundabout way of addressing class inequality?