The Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

Introduction

Affirmative action refers to policies that are instituted to regulate the allocation and distribution of positions that are scarce in sectors such as education, business contracting and employment. The main objective is to increase the representation of individuals in certain subgroups of the population in those positions. However, affirmative action policies have raised a lot of controversy as some groups oppose its implementation while other groups support its application. There has been a raging debate for over a decade between the supporters and critics of affirmative action to gain the moral high ground on the issue. The challenge between the two groups has been manifested in form of legal battles, legislations, courts of

To begin with, affirmative action is important in federal contracting, voluntary affirmative action as well as court-ordered affirmative action. Considering federal contractors and affirmative action, the Executive Order 11246 of 1965 by president Johnson brought forth the first ever affirmative action policy. The Executive order and the amendments that followed applied to the federal government as well as any private organization that was involved in business transactions with the federal government. The plan for affirmative action according to the EO11246 comprises two varying components (Crosby, Iyer, Clayton & Downing 2003). To begin with, it requires that each institution should be able to monitor the statistics of its workforce taking note of the gender and ethnic groups that are underrepresented. When considering gender, the focus is on women as the underrepresented group. However, when considering ethnicity, the groups considered are; Asian Americans, African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. The order requires that for every job class within the institution, the contractor must determine the availability of individuals who are qualified. The availability of qualified personnel may be determined through consideration of such factors as the number of individuals from the underrepresented groups who meet the requisite skills. Additionally, the recruiter must be

The use of strong preferential treatment towards the groups has also been forbidden by the Supreme Court. Such strong preferential treatment involves such actions as keeping of a separate applicants’ list as well as strict quotas. In fact affirmative action opponents constantly portray affirmative action policy as a trivial matter that involves preferential consideration. There are several means through which such underrepresentation can be remedied. For instance, the organization can actively recruit applicants from the groups classified as underrepresented. They can also formalize practices that involve personnel awareness such as posting of jobs so that individuals from all groups are made aware of job openings. In the event that there is blatant discrimination in the workforce, the court may be involved in setting target and proportions. However, this rarely occurs and it represents one of the circumstances that may necessitate the use of quotas to address the discrimination process and, therefore, accord opportunities to the