Equal opportunity is a state of fairness in which individuals are treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers, prejudices, or preferences, except when particular distinctions can be explicitly justified. For example, the intent of equal employment opportunity is that the important jobs in an organization should go to the people who are most qualified – persons most likely to perform ably in a given task – and not go to persons for reasons deemed arbitrary or irrelevant, such as circumstances of birth, upbringing, having well-connected relatives or friends, religion, sex, ethnicity, race, caste, or involuntary personal attributes such as disability, age. According to proponents of the concept, chances for advancement should be open to everybody without regard for wealth, status, or membership in a privileged group. The idea is to remove arbitrariness from the selection process and base it on some "pre-agreed basis of fairness, with the assessment process being related to the type of position" and emphasizing procedural and legal means. Individuals should succeed or fail based on their efforts and not extraneous circumstances such as having well-connected parents. It is opposed to nepotism and plays a role in whether a social structure is seen as legitimate. The concept is applicable in areas of public life in which benefits are earned and received such as employment and education, although it can apply to many other areas as well. Equal opportunity is central to the concept of meritocracy. There are two major types of equality:

• Formal equality: individual merit-based comparison of opportunity.
• Substantive equality: moves away from individual merit-based comparison towards group equality of outcomes.

समान अवसर की परिभाषा और अर्थ पर काफी मतभेद है। मोटे तौर पर इसका अर्थ ऐसे सामाजिक वातावरण से है जिसमें व्यक्तियों को शिक्षा, रोजगार (जीविका), स्वास्थ्य-सुविधा आदि की प्राप्ति में ऐसे चीजों (traits) के आधार पर भेदभाव न किया जाता हो जिन्हे व्यक्ति कोशिश करके भी नहीं बदल सकता । समान अवसर के निर्माण एवं क्रियान्यवन के लिये सरकार और संस्थाएँ तरह-तरह के उपाय करतीं हैं। समान अवसर प्रदाता संस्थाएँ निम्नलिखित चीजों के आधार पर कोई भेद-भाव नहीं करतीं-

• लिंग (sex)
• जाति (race)
• वैवाहिक स्थिति
• कैरीअर से जुड़े उत्तरदायित्व
• अपंगता (disability)
• आयु
• राजनैतिक झुकाव
• धार्मिक विश्वास