One of the problems in society has been the fact that racism is widespread and has a deeply felt impact on almost every ethnic group. Not only are minorities discriminated against but women as well. Certain people have gotten enough preferential treatment that women and minorities are either excluded from the workplace entirely, or at subjugated to lesser jobs or just lower wages for the same jobs. Affirmative Action was an act passed with the intention of correcting this injustice, allowing women and minorities to take their proper place in the educational and professional environments.
One of the first implementations of Affirmative Action was the Wagner bill in 1935 that would require a wrongfully terminated employee to be reinstated under Affirmative Action, if he was terminated for unionizing. This act did not include protection for minorities but other legislation and programs included anti-discrimination language.
Through the years anti-discrimination laws became more direct and clear-cut. The rights of minorities has also been reaffirmed repeatedly by the supreme court. The goal of these programs is to reverse the effect of century's old discrimination practices by putting everyone on a level playing field. There has been a measurably positive impact for the groups protected by Affirmative Action. The number of female doctors has nearly doubled, and significant increases have also been noted in female attorneys, lawyers, chemists and college faculties.
There are, however, certain problems that have been brought up in the light of Affirmative Action. These are that the program in general tend to be unfair and creates many of the problems that it is meant to end, just in different groups of people. Regardless of whether minority hiring is accomplished thought goals or quotas, certain people are given preferential treatment based upon gender or ethnicity, which is ironically the same sort of thing the program is working to defeat.
In defense of the Affirmative Action program. The goal is to create inclusion, not to create more discrimination. This may often be accomplished in a less than fair way but it is imporant to reintegrate minorities and women into the workforce so that they can help improve the perceptions of their group and in effect help from the inside to improve hiring practices. As things improve goals and quotas can be dropped but it is important to maintain presence of mind and attention on the fact of discrimination.
Furthermore, it is reported by some that it appears they are forced to keep bad employees who are in a protected ethnic background or protected group. This belief may lead some to reduce hiring. This is more of a matter of poor implementation rather than policy.
References
Golland, D. H. (2011). Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity. Constructing Affirmative Action, 170-183. doi:10.5810/kentucky/9780813129976.003.0007
