Equality
- is not limited to treating everybody the same
- treating everyone with the same standards, so that they have the same opportunity- equity
St Augustine on Equality
“when you don’t ask me, I know what it is; when you ask me, I don’t know. Equality must be something other than treating everyone in the same way since everyone is different”
Types of Equality
- Fundamental: all people should be treated as equals by their government and legal system, no special privileges but an entitlement to respect and consideration as human beings
- Social: all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in certain respects, including civl rights, freedom of speech, property rights and equal access to certain social goods and services
- Treat equals equally and unequals unequally: equals are people in the same situation, someone in a different situation is an unequal, who may need special help or punishment, depending on the circumstance and their actions within that circumstance
-equality is not sameness
Moral Agents
if a person is able to interact with others, make decisions and be responsible, they are a moral agent, which entails certain duties and privileges
Genesis 1:27
“in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them”
Genesis 3:16
a punishment to Eve: “your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you”
1 Corinthians 9
Paul laid aside his rights to marriage and to be supported by the community as an apostle
John Stott
three essential relationships were established at creation
- Humans relationship with God- right and responsibility to worship. Form this comes the right to profess and practice religion, thought and speech.
- Relationships betweenhumans- right and responsibility to fellowship. In relationship with one antother, humans express their right to peaceful assembly, to marry and raise a family and to receive respect regardless of age, sex, race and rank.
- Humankind’s relationship with earth- the right and responsibility of Stewardship. A God given right to use the world’s resources in exchange for a duty to care for it.
Plato on Equality
argued it is impossible to have a society based on equality due to no one agreeing on what people deserve.
He stated that justice is achieved within the state when everyone is able to live and work in harmony with others.
Horner and Westacott
“Justice is fairness, equal opportunities for all to make something of their lives, and a way back from deaths for those who
fail.”
John Locke on Equality
we gain civil rights in return for accepting the obligation to respect and defend the rights of others, giving up some freedoms to do so.
Thomas Nagel on Equality
despite our concern for equality, the world is full of inequality.
- Some of this is a matter of luck, e.g. we are not responsible for the social or economical situations into which we are born or our natural talents
- Other inequalities are deliberately imposed, e.g. racial and sexual discrimination. It is expected that the government prevents this through legislation and sanctions
- The social system may advocate equality of opportunity but inequality of result is inevitable, although these inequalities are the outcome of
choices and actions which in themselves are not wrong
Emmeline Pankhurst
- 1889 formed Women’s Franchise League, which fought to allow married women to vote in local elections
- 1903 helped found more militant Women’s social and Political Union, the first to be called suffragettes
- arrested on numerous occasions and went on hunger strike
- in 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave voting rights to women over 30, Emmeline died in June 1928, shortly after women were
granted equal voting rights with men at 21 - “We were determined to press this question of the enfranchisement of women to the point where we were no longer to be ignored by the
politicians” - “We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers”
International Women’s Day
a worldwide event that celebrates women’s achievements while calling for gender equality
* it has been observed since the early 1900s and is now recognised each year on March 8th.
- It is not affiliated with any one group, but brings together governments, women’s organisations, corporations and charities
- The day is marked around the world with arts performances, talks, rallies, marches etc
- can be traced back to a 15,000 women march through New York City in 1908 for voting rights and maternity pay
- 1910, leader of ‘women’s office’ in Social Democratic Party in Germany Clara Zetkin, tabled idea of an international Women’s day to help push for women’s demands for equality
- 1913, it was decided to transfer IWD to March 8th and has been celebrated each year since, receiving recognition from the United Nations in 1975
Catholic Church on Equality
supported view that men and women have equal dignity and rights, but “equal right and equal dignity do not mean uniformity”
(Youth Catechism)
- the role of the women in the family is irreplaceable, and the Catholic Church has always opposed efforts to force women into work. This
dies not mean they expect them to stay at home. - The Church supports the involvement of women in all types of professional work. They believe women have special talents that enable the whole of society to benefit, and society must allow women to play a full part while always respecting the demands of their home life
- only men are ordained because of apostolic succession, however, there are female priests and vicars in other denominations
Malala Yousafzai
- defied the Taliban in Pakistan as a young girl, demanding that girls be allowed to receive an education
- shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012, but survived and won a Nobel Peace Prize
- “Education is neither eastern nor western. Education is education and it’s the right of every human being”
- after being shot, was flown to England for surgery where, with a heightened public profile, continued to advocate for education rights
Church of England and Gender Equality
has allowed women to become priests since 1993 and bishops since 2014
Justin Welby (Arch Bishop of Canterbury): this allows the Church to select people “based simply on our sense that they are called by God to be in that position without qualification as to their gender”
Libby Lane was ordained as deacon in 1993 and Bishop of Stockport in 2014
Feminism timeline
- 1918 representation of people act: women over 31 could vote in elections
- 1939-1945: women filled men’s roles in the workforce
- 1970 equal pay act: employers must pay women the same as men for the same work
- 1991: rape within marriage becomes illegal in Britain
- 1992: First Church of England female priests
Saudi Arabia 2013
Aziza al-Yousef and Eman al Nafjan were arrested for breaking Saudi Arabia’s driving ban for women
spent a few hours in prison until they were released into the custody of their husbands
Nafjan is one of Saudi Arabias’ most prominent bloggers and one of the organisers of the popular Women’s Driving Campaign
The two said they let themselves get arrested on purpose for media attention
Saudi Arabia is still the only country in the world where women are officially banned from driving
Delhi 2012
following the gang rape and subsequent death of a 23 year old woman on a bus in Delhi in 2012 the Indian government and police have been accused of ignoring and failing to recognise the rights of women
one women’s campaigner in 2013 said: “The taboo on discussion of rape and sexual violence has been broken…but there is still a rape culture and related brutality”
2015 in BBC interview, before execution, one of the rapists said “when being raped, she shouldn’t fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they’d have dropped her off after ‘doing her’…A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy.”
Emma Watson 2014
“If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted, women won’t feel compelled to be submissive”
Virginia Woolf
criticised the absence of women authors:
“whatever effect discouragement and criticism had upon their writing…that was unimportant compared with the other difficulty which faced them…they had no tradition behind them”
Betty Friedan
explored inequality in terms of female sexuality:
“a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the 20th century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled with it alone”
The waves of feminism
1st wave: late 19th and early 20th centuries, figures such as Pankhurst, focusing on equality in property, economic and voting rights. All women over 21 were able to vote in the UK by 1928.
2nd wave: following WWII, focused on tackling discrimination in employment, pay, education, reproductive rights and role of women in family
3rd wave: by 1980s, called for greater awareness of specific concerns, such as those of women from minority backgrounds, women of other sexual orientations and lower social classes. Criticised the second wave’s conformism.
