Affirmative action denies opportunities to those who may be more deserving than those who are granted jobs or positions due to the quotas that the employers or administrators are required to meet. When an institution receives thousands of applications every fall, the college must make sure that the appropriate percentage of those are in accordance with the gender and racial standards executed by affirmative action. The same applies in the job market and within “diverse” companies. Individuals are identified by their race or gender as opposed to their capabilities or qualifications. Once the company or university has established the number of applicants and the “group“ they identify with, they must then figure how many of which gender and race they need, followed by the selection of the most qualified of the “needed” sex or race. The problem that emerges upon choosing the most qualified within the gender or race, rather than the entire pool of applicants, is that even if a white or male applicant is more qualified than a black or female applicant, the black or female will be chosen to create “equality,” “diversity,” and to abide by government established law. Therefore, affirmative action can be seen as an abuse of power by the government and an unjust law.
The impact of affirmative action on women may cause them to suffer the stigma of second-class citizenship. As a result of preferential treatment, they can be under the assumption that they were hired not because of their qualifications, but because of their gender. Affirmative action may thus lead to the conclusion that the women hired under affirmative action policies are incompetent. If someone is hired or placed in a position as a result of affirmative action efforts, it leads observers to deem that the employee was hired without regard to the requirements of the job to be completed. The individual may then be assumed to have been hired only because of her sex, with her qualifications irrelevant to the selection process. Sex bias also has been demonstrated in decisions about pay raises, promotions and training opportunities. Although sex may only be taken into consideration after hiring a person for their qualifications, it may only be assumed that they received their position because of the law. Through this you can see that affirmative action sometimes creates, rather than alleviates, problems for women by causing people to perceive them as possessing fewer of the characteristics considered necessary for success in a traditionally male work environment. If affirmative action promotes these negative notions, then there is a distinct possibility that rather than being a solution for sex discrimination, it can be yet another element contributing to the problem.
Controversial topics such as capital punishment, abortion, labor unions and animal rights are among the many unclear social issues that are disputed in America’s political communities, businesses, schools, religious centers, and homes. The most rampant of these concerns are still infiltrating through learning institutions and the business world. They continues to play a fundamental role as the subject that has haunted the United States for the past few centuries. Affirmative Action is the nation’s most ruthless attempt to redress its long history of racial and gender discrimination, and the system is still far from perfect.
Works Cited
Bowman, Ann; Kearney, Richard. State and Local Government P. 221-223
Mackinnon, Catherine. Feminism Unmodified-Discourses of Life and Law. Harvard University. 1998
Steele, Shelby. “A Negative Vote on Affirmative Action.” Conversations. Ed. Jack Selzer, New York: Longman, 2003. P.327-333.
Steinberg, Jacques. NY Times. www.utwatch.org/oldnews/ny_flaws_2_13_03.html
