Beijing Women's Leadership Roundtable

Understanding: What does equity mean?
Fairness and Equality:First of all, in designing the best fairness policy, we need to have a clear understanding of what fairness means, which is different from equality. Equality and fairness are two very different concepts. Equality means that everyone should be treated the same. By that logic, everyone has access to the same resources and opportunities. Equity, on the other hand, recognizes that people have different starting points. That is the key. Because some groups face systemic barriers, taking an equity approach means allocating resources and opportunities based on the needs of those groups with the goal of achieving an equal outcome or end point for all.
The "E" in DEI: As we lead the journey towards gender equality, we need to place the "E" or equity in the context of diversity and inclusion. Together, diversity and equity should be seen as a means to achieve the ultimate goal of "inclusion".

Take action: How do we shape our equity efforts? Our journey towards gender equality needs to encompass multiple dimensions of the issue itself. Therefore, our efforts to achieve equity need to be twofold; at the macro and micro levels, starting from changing local cultures and influencing mindsets from the top down, to developing individual policies and actions.
Cultural level:When thinking about equity, we should remember that everyone has different experiences and backgrounds and may have different understandings and expectations of equity. This is especially important for multinational companies as we face the intersection of different cultures with ours in China. 
Corporate level:Once we recognize the macro-environment in which we operate, we need to consider how we can influence our mindset about fairness from the top down. An equity policy starts with our CEO and grand strategy, ensuring that we make equity a key objective of our corporate program. 
Individual Level:Sometimes practicing an equity mindset means nothing more than learning to step out of our comfort zones, out of the boundaries of cultural biases and expectations, speaking up at board meetings, or holding ourselves accountable to the blind spots of unconscious bias.