Should All Awards Be Ungendered?

Several months ago the BRIT awards announced that they would remove separate male and female prizes for best solo and best international musical act, opting to replace them with ungendered award categories. At the awards program, singer Adele landed in a bit of trouble after winning and declaring her pride in being a woman and in the accomplishments of women artists, despite the award intentionally trying to take the spotlight away from gender. Her speech aside, might this be the start of a trend toward more ungendered awards?

And if so, the real question is which ones will make this move. Should awards for best acting or directing be gendered? What about beauty pageants? Sporting events? It's a hard question to answer because it comes down to the difference between equality versus equity.

It would be equal to have men and women race against one another in the 40 yard dash. It wouldn't, however, be equitable. Judging music created by men, women or those who identify as neither could be done in an equitable way. Biological gender provides no real advantage when it comes to musical talent. Real equity, in other words, is not about treating everyone the same. It's about creating more fairness for everyone.