Gender is an analytical tool for understanding social processes. Although the institution's policies or practices might apply to everyone, they create a distinction between groups of individuals which disadvantage one group based on shared personal characteristics of members of that group in a manner inconsistent with human dignity. To ensure fairness, measures must often be available to compensate for historical and social disadvantages disproportionately experienced by women.
Equity leads to equality.
They are premised on the recognition of the need to take positive steps to redress institutionalized discrimination and persistent social inequalities. In various contexts it can mean equality of opportunity, freedom from discrimination, equal treatment, equal benefit, equal status and equality of results. A substantive approach to equality evaluates the fairness of apparently neutral laws, policies and programs in light of the larger social context of inequality, and emphasizes the importance of equal outcomes which sometimes requires equal treatment and sometimes different treatment. The object of gender equality analysis is to replace those assumptions with a consideration of the specific situations of women in the labour market, in the household and in the community, and thus shape laws, policies, and programs that reflect and respond to women's needs and priorities.