Various aspects of equality of opportunity

Introduction

Equality of opportunity has several aspects, because opportunities are shaped by law, by social background and by the resources a person can command. The answer takes the idea first and then its aspects.

Equality of opportunity

Equality of opportunity does not ask that everyone should end up with the same status, income or standing. Its test is whether people have fair access to the goods on which a decent life is built, such as a safe home, medical care and schooling, because it is unequal access to these, rather than unequal wealth or rank as such, that makes a society unequal and unjust. Once that access is secured, different results are to be expected: people choose different paths and bring different abilities and effort to them, so a school class that produces one Olympic shooter, one start-up founder and many people in ordinary jobs shows no unfairness on that count alone. Behind the idea lies a claim that every person holds simply as a human being: an equal right, and an equal chance, to develop one's abilities and to pursue the goals one sets.

Formal and substantive. Formal (legal) equality of opportunity removes legal barriers: nobody is excluded by law from an office or a school because of birth, caste or sex. Substantive or fair equality of opportunity goes further, because a race with open entry can still be unfair if some runners start far behind. Think of a girl whose village school has one teacher for five classes and who works on the family farm after school, set beside a city child with books at home and a quiet room to study in: the law treats them alike, but their chances are not alike, and those from deprived groups need some special help if they are to compete fairly. The substantive view therefore asks the state to soften the effects of social and economic inequality and to secure certain minimum conditions of life for everyone; a society that fails to do so loses much of the talent born into it. Liberals add a qualification. State action to secure a minimum standard of living and equal opportunities may be needed, they accept, but it cannot by itself produce equality and justice; what shares out rewards, jobs and college places most fairly and efficiently is open competition held under free and fair conditions. On this view a bank that recruits its officers through one written test, open to every graduate and run under the same rules for all, distributes its jobs fairly, and the result is left to each candidate's ability and effort.

Difficulties. (a) Equality of opportunity cannot be perfect so long as family background, caste and wealth differ; (b) differential treatment aimed at it, such as reservations, raises disputes about fairness to others; (c) critics say that a ladder of competition can still leave those at the bottom badly off, which leads to demands for a "social minimum" or equality of outcome.

Aspects of equality of opportunity

1. Legal or formal aspect. Nobody may be excluded by law from schools, offices, professions or votes on grounds of caste, race, religion or sex; the Constitution prohibits discrimination on these grounds and abolishes untouchability.
2. Political aspect. As equal citizens, people hold the rights that let them take part in the affairs of the state: freedom of belief and of expression, freedom to form associations and to move about, and the vote.
3. Social aspect. Members of every group and community can compete for social goods on fair terms only if certain minimum conditions are secured to all: a minimum wage, enough to eat, the chance of a good education and proper health care. Custom can close doors as firmly as poverty: in some groups women are barred from activities that men take up freely, as when a daughter is stopped from taking a job that her brother would be urged to accept.
4. Economic aspect. Where wealth passes down generations, opportunity is unequal; equal opportunities are what most democracies offer in place of equality of wealth, so that those with talent and determination can improve their position.
5. Educational aspect. Gaps in higher-education attainment between castes and communities are a sign of unequal access. Money decides a great deal at the entrance stage as well: a student from a poor home who does well at school may still be unable to pay for entrance coaching or to meet a professional course's fees, and so loses out to better-off rivals.
6. Gender aspect. Women can make real use of an equal right to work only when the workplace provides for needs particular to them, such as safe transport home after a late shift or paid leave after childbirth.
7. Compensatory aspect. Affirmative action, including reservations, is the attempt to correct the cumulative effect of past inequalities so that deprived groups can compete on fair terms.

Conclusion

The aspects show that equality of opportunity is not only a legal guarantee: it needs a social and economic base and, where inequalities are entrenched, special help. This is also why the policy chosen for it is so contested.