This #IWD2023, we discuss equality and equity in universities.
How is Higher Education addressing equity and equality? This #IWD2023 let’s #EmbraceEquity and dig a little deeper.
Equality and equity on International Women’s Day 2023
International Women’s Day has been held for over a hundred years and is, according to its website, “a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality”.
A vital way to ‘accelerate equality’ is to build on equity, and to understand the difference between both. Indeed, this year the theme is #EmbraceEquity, and this #IWD2023 on 8th March 2023 we shine a spotlight on that.
What does this mean in philanthropic terms?
Understanding equity helps institutions shape and refine their fundraising strategy and projects so that they truly are accessible to all. Focusing on gender equity, it is not enough to increase your quota of female fundraising staff, or female donors, or the number of projects which help women, and consider the ‘equality/equity’ box ticked.
Instead, institutions must understand the barriers that may be faced by women in any one of those areas and proactively help to break them down to level the playing field and drive true equality.
#EmbraceEquity
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#EmbraceEquity 〰️
What equity means to us at Cairney & Co
At Cairney & Company, we’re female-led with well over 50% of our team being female too. We have representation across a number of diverse communities and keep this under constant review, ensuring we always identify and remove barriers. As the only female-led global fundraising consultancy based in Scotland we’re gaining significant traction.
We spoke to Cairney & Co’s Founder & CEO Karen Cairney to dig a little deeper into equality and equity in universities and philanthropy. From her regular in-depth conversations with senior university leaders, Karen has a unique insight into the strategic directions and decisions that institutions are taking in order to improve their approach to both equality and equity, whether that’s for students, staff, fundraising priorities or donors. Here’s what she had to say.
Do you think HEIs have a good enough understanding of the difference between equality and equity?
In HE, the phrase ‘Widening Participation’ used to be treated as a (slightly confusing) catch-all term. Now we are far more granular, quite rightly treating equality, equity, diversity and inclusion as separate yet linked issues. I have seen the words ‘equality’ and ‘equity’ treated as interchangeable terms, but this is slowly changing and the #EmbraceEquity campaign will help.
The universities that have grasped the difference are the ones that are having deeper conversations, proactively identifying and removing barriers to give everyone equitable treatment, developing better policies, and ensuring that leadership is accountable for implementation and monitoring.
#EmbraceEquity
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#EmbraceEquity 〰️
Do you think that HEIs are embracing equality and equity in their approach to philanthropy?
We are not seeing much proactive movement in the recruitment of fundraising staff or in actively seeking equity in work with donors and alumni. If philanthropy is about supporting public good and improving the quality of life through transformational giving, there remains a lot more to be done.
Peter Taylor, former President of ECMC, a US foundation focused on improving HE for career success among underserved populations, says that organisations need to focus on the three Ps: people, purchasing and philanthropy. This means hiring diverse staff, purchasing from companies led by diverse owners and supporting diverse communities through philanthropy.
Women and girls remain one of the most under-resourced communities, with the share of funding for women’s and girls’ organisations being only 1.6% of all philanthropic giving. This is not equality, and it’s certainly not equity. It’s for fundraising professionals to understand what would make the giving system more equitable so that we can make a change.
I would add to Peter’s comments that we need to go one step further by focusing not just on funding diverse communities, but also on who they’re funded by.
I don’t see that HEIs are creating enough opportunities for women to be significant donors to address key issues around equality and equity, and we know that women influence 80% of the financial decisions that a family makes. We need to think differently about our approach to this significant and growing group of potential donors.
What bold moves do universities need to make to ensure the dialogue around equality and equity remains at the forefront?
Institutions need to deepen their understanding of equality and equity, and make sure that both are addressed as separate yet connected issues. They must also increase their appetite for risk and embrace the amount of time it will take - it takes strategic thought, constant assessment, bold leadership and a timeframe for implementation to embed equity as a golden thread that runs through the organisation. This golden thread must extend to their approach to donors and the projects they are seeking funding for.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has recently appointed their first-ever President of Gender Equality, Anita Zaidi and created a new Gender Equality Division. It will be interesting to see if universities begin to adopt a similar approach.
Are you seeing a shift in the number of women in senior HE leadership positions?
Yes. In new data released by Times Higher Education, we learn that women now lead almost a quarter (48) of the world's top 200 universities. That’s 12% more than last year and 41% higher than five years ago.
In Louise Richardson’s last major speech before stepping down as Vice-Chancellor of the world’s top university, Oxford, she was very clear: “There is no question at all in my mind that future university leaders will need to be increasingly representative of the diverse constituencies they lead, and that they will bring new and vibrant leadership styles,” she told the Times Higher Education World Academic Summit in New York in October 2022.
Greater diversity, equality and equity across leadership means positive momentum for further change, and it is genuinely heartening to see such an increase in senior HE female leaders.
But equality and equity for women is the responsibility of all university leaders - not just females - and we shouldn’t assume that gender inequalities will be resolved just because there are more female leaders. It will help, yes, but it is not a problem that is just to be solved by women.
#EmbraceEquity
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#EmbraceEquity 〰️
How do we understand, promote and increase equity in philanthropy?
We need to have open, frank conversations with our donors and ask them what an equitable society looks and feels like to them, and how they can help make that happen.
This needs to be a consistent dialogue driven by the leadership of the university and not seen as a ‘nice to have’ or a ‘pet project’. Diversity, equity and inclusion must become part of the organisation’s DNA from hiring practice, to purchasing, board and volunteer recruitment and engagement with donors.
This will take time and organisations won't always get it right the first time but they must press on, learning lessons as they go. Building in reflective practice to the DEI approach will ensure that they don’t make the same mistakes twice while celebrating milestones along the way.
Thanks for your time, Karen! Can you leave us with some words that inspire you?
Yes! In the words of Maya Angelou, “We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color”. I think that is the essence of equity summed up beautifully.
If you’d like to discuss how you could improve gender equity and equality in your institution’s fundraising work, get in touch.