Affirmative Action Term Paper

10 Pages 2465 Words

ortunities for women and minorities. Executive Order 11246 banned discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin in federal employment and employment by federal contractors and subcontractors. The Order requires executive departments and agencies to “maintain a positive program of equal opportunities”. Executive Order 11246 was expanded by Executive Order 11375 to include women. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 called for a “federal workforce reflective of the nation’s diversity and called for elimination of the under representation of women and minorities in the federal workplace.
Affirmative action is defined as an effort that promotes positive results. Affirmative action programs seek to remedy past discrimination against women, minorities, and others by increasing the recruitment, promotion, retention, and on-the-job training opportunities in employment and by removing barriers to admissions to educational institutions. Throughout history discrimination has been primarily based on race and sex, which is why most affirmative action programs are geared toward women and minorities. Affirmative action strategies include expanding the number of minority applicants for a school or job by posting information in places where women and minorities have a greater likelihood of seeing them. In some cases affirmative action law or court order has instituted these programs. In most cases affirmative action programs have been voluntarily established to increase the pool of applicants to a particular school or job.
The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 is the reason affirmative action is the disaster it is today. Affirmative action legislation was originally implemented to stop discrimination on the basis of sex, race, creed, color or national origin not to create a school or workplace that strives to recruit people based on these characteristics. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1976 did nothin...