User:The Land/On Equity

This essay aims to inform discussion about “Equity” in the context of the movement strategy by looking at some of these concepts of equality.

Cambridge English Dictionary: “the situation in which everyone is treated fairly and equally:” Wiktionary: Justice, impartiality or fairness.

Even the “fair and equal” meaning of Equity is far from clear-cut. Unhelpfully, "Fair” and “Equal” are also imprecise concepts in English. Philosophers spill much ink to describe what all these related concepts do or should mean. There is simply no easy way to chose the 'right' meaning of equality, as judgements about the merits of each kind are deeply rooted in cultural and political differences. Also, all of these terms are disputed. It's easy to find essays and memes with neat contrasts between 'equality' and 'equity' on the Internet, but those are all written to make a political or philosophical point, not to document an agreed definition of the terms.

Definitions of Equality

The starting point for thinking about what "equity" means is to look at the definitions of "equality" that come up in economics and philosophy.

(Why start with "equality"? In my experience, "equality" is used much more frequently in this kind of discourse. So there are many definitions of equality, albeit contradictory, while there are not enough definitions of equity.)

“Equality of opportunity”, or “Equality of laws” or “Equality of process”: The same laws or rules apply to everyone. In a sense, this is very fair, as there is no special treatment for any group. This creates a fair process in that everyone plays by the same rules – there is no formal discrimination against any group. However, the rules may result in very different outcomes. If you start off rich you will probably finish rich. The rules may also be implicitly written to suit one group over another. A culture may develop that supports some and not others.

The existing structure of the Wikimedia movement bears many similarities to “Equality of opportunity”. Anyone can edit a Wikipedia, anyone can propose a new project, anyone can set up an affiliate.

Our existing structures show some of the problems with “Equality of opportunity”. We do not have rules saying that there can’t be Wikipedias in small languages from developing countries, or that there have to be 4 men editing the English Wikipedia for every woman, or that most WMF grants should be spent in Western Europe. Nonetheless, these things have ended up happening (and there is no sign of them ceasing).

“Equality of outcome”: The system is set up so that everyone ends up with the same amount of what they need, regardless of where they started. For instance, an education system that gives every child the same level of education regardless of their background of natural ability.

A system that works towards “equality of outcome” will reduce any biases that already exist. However, it is likely to require an unequal distribution, with some individuals needing vastly more resources, and unequal rules that mean some people held back. It can also result in equal but bad outcomes, by removing peoples’ incentives to take the initiative themselves, or by ignoring the fact that different people have different preferences.

It should probably be obvious that we are a very long distance away from having equality of outcome.

“Equality of resource”: Everyone receives the same share of resources, e.g funding. For instance, the same dollar amount is spent on every child’s education. In a sense this is similar to 'Equality of opportunity', but it is applied to resource distribution rather than laws and systems. It has the same characteristic of procedural fairness, but also the similar weakness that it produces wildly varying outcomes because different

“Equality of respect” or “Equality of esteem”: Everyone is given equal respect and dignity. Arguably this is a starting point and a pre-requisite for other forms of equality. Arguably, however, the Wikimedia movement breaches this criterion in many respects. For instance, global conversations are conducted almost entirely in English - does that give equal respect to non-English speakers? Or another example; I believe it's unusual for WMF staff to be asked to share rooms at Wikimedia events, but that it's normal for volunteers attending the same events on scholarships to be offered shared accommodation.

“Equality of choice” or “Equality of autonomy”: Resources are allocated so that everyone’s own decisions have equal meaning. This is an easy concept to state, but a difficult one to interpret. It can include both rules and resources. For instance, it might mean that a person with a disability receives more support to be able to get a job or to participate in their hobbies on the same terms as someone without that disability. This looks quite similar to "equality of outcome" but the focus is more on the decisions people make rather than the income they have. An "equality of outcome" approach to disability might be to ensure that the hypothetical disabled person remains unemployed but receives financial support to make sure their standard of living is the same as that of someone who is in work. For "equality of choice", however, it's important that this person has the same choices of career and life path as everyone else.

So, what does "equity" mean?

The phrase “equity” is often used to mean something like “equality of outcome” or “equality of choice”. People on the political Left in the USA often contrast "Equality" (as in opportunity) with "Equity". (However, as I noted earlier, this is neither a nuanced nor a universal usage). It is often used in a positive way, like ‘helping people to overcome the obstacles they face’.

What does this mean for the Wikimedia movement

“Knowledge equity” was a phrase chosen in the specific context of the Wikimedia movement.

As I noted above, the existing structure of the Wikimedia movement bears many similarities to “Equality of opportunity”. Anyone can edit a Wikipedia, anyone can propose a new project, anyone can set up an affiliate. "Knowledge equity" clearly means going beyond that.

“Knowledge equity” means a commitment to address inequalities in documenting and sharing knowledge.

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