Question

How has affirmative action financially affected white women?

Answer 1

Affirmative action programs have played a critical role in opening up opportunities for women and minorities to begin to take their rightful place in our society. Eliminating or curtailing affirmative action would not only halt the forward progress that women, as well as minorities, have been able to achieve; it would mark a giant leap backward in this nation’s journey toward equal opportunity for all.

Affirmative action programs make a difference. A government study showed that women made greater gains in employment at companies doing business with the federal government, and therefore subject to federal affirmative action requirements, than at other companies: female employment rose 15.2% at federal contractors, and only 2.2% elsewhere. The same study showed that federal contractors employed women at higher levels and in better paying jobs than other firms.While people of color, individually and as groups, have been helped by affirmative action in the subsequent years, data and studies suggest women — white women in particular — have benefited disproportionately.

In employment, examples of affirmative action programs are recruitment and outreach efforts to include qualified women in the talent pool when hiring decisions are made; training programs to give all employees a fair chance at promotions; and in some cases the use of flexible goals and timetable (not quotas) as benchmarks by which to measure progress toward eliminating severe under-representation of qualified women in specific job categories.

In education, affirmative action programs for women include grants and graduate fellowship programs aimed at helping women move into fields where their participation has been discouraged, such as engineering, math and the physical sciences. They also include programs to prepare and motivate girls and women for study in non-traditional fields.

For women business owners, affirmative action programs include laws that encourage government agencies and contractors to do business with qualified women-owned companies, as well as programs providing financial, management and technical assistance to women business owners.