Question

Please explain how affirmative action policies have been beneficial for women and African Americans?

Answer 1

• In 1960 there were virtually no women enrolled in competitive elite private colleges that also enrolled men. Women went to separate and less equal schools that had inadequate facilities, less competitive faculty and different curriculum.
• In the South there were virtually no African Americans enrolled in the top tier public colleges and universities. They were shunted to less competitive colleges, but also had to deal with a legacy of a K-12 system that was chronically underfunded and less equal.
• Generally, higher education was structured and still is to benefit people who already had social and economic capital. Poor students were generally offered reduced and unaffordable options.
• After affirmative action programs were put into effect women, ethnic Whites and what we would call “minorities” that were mostly Hispanic and African American, gained significant access to higher education.
• The benefits can be seen not just in what we can call for lack of a better description “fairness” or “justice” but also in a broader, more skilled, more competitive talent pool for business and industry to recruit from.
• In general, women today are more educated and make up more of the workforce than ever before, in part because of affirmative action policies. Indeed, from the tech industry to publishing, diversity has emerged as an overwhelming increase in the presence of white women, not necessarily people of color.
• After two decades of affirmative action, it was white women who held the majority of managerial jobs, compared to African American, Latino, and Asian American women.Across the board, affirmative action helped women obtain success in the labor market. Today, women are more educated and successful in the workforce than ever before, while married women are taking over as household breadwinners.
• Today, women outnumber men on college campuses and are more likely to earn their bachelor’s degrees and attend graduate school than men. More than 30 years after affirmative action was extended to include women, the percentage of female physicians jumped from 7.6 to 25.2. However, these improvement are more likely to benefit white women than women of color.
• At the top level colleges, African-American students do very well as those students are typically from high functioning, high social economic families and have backgrounds that match their fellow students. They have the ability to compete well and probably would have qualified for acceptance regardless of race.
• Affirmative action has helped so many women and people of color break barriers in their careers. But even with the policy, the playing field still isn’t totally level for everyone. Getting rid of it wouldn’t just be anti-progressive, but detrimental for this country’s future.