Micro-inequities are small, unjust inequalities often pointed to as part of the larger story about the unequal place of women in the workforce. This paper sets out to examine micro-inequities in the context of women’s careers in the academic discipline of philosophy. It also offers a philosophical analysis of micro-inequities, looks at some explanations about why moral philosophy has struggled with the problem of small harms, and argues that we need to rethink their moral significance. I argue that we should not treat acts and their results only on an individual basis. The existence of micro-inequities highlights a significant problem with doing so as cumulative effects are easily ignored when we do this. A final section offers some suggestions about solutions appropriate to the kind of wrongs that micro-inequities are.
Keywords
Inequity, Inequality, micro-inequity, women, workforce, academia, moral philosophy, small harms, aggregation