Discrimination And Sexual Harassment And Affirmative Action

During the last part of this century, businesses and organizations have heavily relied on affirmative actions laws to ensure equal employment opportunities. The failure of this dependence upon legislation is that is doesn't address the full spectrum of diversity in the workplace (6). Affirmative actions laws have limitations, discriminating against people holding protected-class status such as women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans,

Throughout history, the affirmative action has been supporting women and minorities, which has has a reverse discrimination against white men. White men has mainly been seen throughout the years as the dominate individuals who has received a magnificent amount of assistance, respect, and much more compared to the "underdogs"! The "underdogs" (women and minority) has struggled during the last centuries with the right to vote, the right to fight, the right to equality, the right to be free, and the right to work.

In Professor William Shaw’s The Organization and the People In It, Shaw delves into the debate that is affirmative action. According to Shaw, “affirmative action means programs taking the race or sex of employees or job candidates into account as part of an effort to correct imbalances in employment that exist as a result of past discrimination, either in the company itself or in the larger society”(Shaw, p. 437). Affirmative action promotes the diversity of job opportunities for both genders and all races. Some of the opportunities can cause an unfair advantage to minorities when paired against equal or sometimes better-qualified white counterparts. This can become a moral issue by causing unfair advantages to some people. By attempting to level the playing field, affirmative action actually over compensates for potential discrimination and can place white males at a disadvantage. Affirmative action attempts to balance the application system for college or postgraduate work, however at the expense of some qualified students.

Affirmative action is an action that was purposefully designed to provide full and equal opportunities for employment and education for women, minorities, and other individuals belonging to disadvantaged groups. This paper will assess the rudiments of Affirmative Action as it applies to public and private sector employers. The paper will also evaluate what employers are subject to affirmative action plans, what the plans require employers to do, and what happens if employers do not meet the objectives of the affirmative action plan.

Despite Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal law which bans gender and race discrimination in employment, advancement, and termination, ethnic discrimination and prejudice in the workplace is still a very pertinent issue. In fact, racial discrimination is the most common kind of discrimination workers report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency in charge of enforcing Title VII. Prejudice in the workplace is shown in a variety of forms, is either obvious or subtle, and at times may occur without employers even realizing it. As the General Manager of a popular restaurant in Texas, I witnessed such racial discrimination and prejudice firsthand and saw how detrimental it is to the success of

Affirmative Action is an employment legislation protection system that is intended to address the systemized discrimination faced by women and minorities. It achieves this by enforcing diversity through operational intrusions into recruitment, selection, and other personnel functions and practices in America. Originally, Affirmative Action arose because of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s desire to integrate society on educational, employment, and economic levels, yet it was John F. Kennedy who issued Executive Order 10925 to create the Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, a commission that evolved into our modern Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Social issues have plagued the women and minorities of our country for decades upon decades, degrading them as if emotions and morals were not evident amongst them. The article entitled "Affirmative Action" states that as representation of minorities and women became more and more necessary, a movement called "affirmative action" became an important issue. Affirmative action is not limited to the uplifting of certain genders and races, but it focuses on establishing standards of certain ethical codes. Affirmative action concentrates on a broad array of issues including equal opportunity, systematic exclusion, and diversity.

What is sexual harassment? The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network defines sexual harassment as, “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature in which submission to or rejection of such conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual 's work or school performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work or school environment” (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, 2009). In the United States Sexual harassment is an illegal behavior and a form of discrimination based upon sex and forbidden within the workplace by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 under Title VII (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.) also within an educational institution by the Education Amendment Acts of 1972 under Title IX (United States Department of Labor, n.d.). There are two types of sexual harassment: quid pro quo and hostile environment. Quid pro quo sexual harassment is based upon sexual favors. In a work environment this type of harassment could be seen as a leader telling an employee they will not receive more salary, an advancement opportunity, or they may even lose their job if the employee does not follow through with the sexual favors. This type of sexual harassment could also be seen in an educational setting where an educator or member of the education system uses their place of position and power to get a student to perform sexual favors in order to receive a higher grade or even to

Some people would say that the policy of affirmative action in the workplace only creates positives like diversity and equality in jobs. But this is not the case. Affirmative action may create diversity, but the equality aspect of it is a little shadier. If one job applicant is highly qualified, but does not meet the requirements of affirmative action regulations, such as a white male, they might be passed up for a less qualified applicant, merely because they fit the affirmative action bill by being a minority or other historically underrepresented category of person. This program goes as far as to set quotas for how many minorities, disabled, women, etc. employers have to hire. Along with this, employers must also write and execute an affirmative action plan in order to comply with federal regulations. (Scott) All of these things are intended to create an environment of equality, but they are now actually doing the opposite by excluding qualified whites. Therefore, affirmative action is no longer a sufficient policy to create a diverse and equal workplace.

Affirmative Action is an outcome of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement. Its purpose is to provide equal opportunities for members of minority groups and women in education and employment. It is not until 1961 did the term “affirmative action” was first used by President John F. Kennedy. He made it very clear in an Executive Order that directed government have to take “affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” Since a lot of cooperation still tends to hire white male, by enforcing affirmative action, the number of minority groups and women in the labor force will increase.Affirmative Action helps to eliminate the imbalance in the society and reform the American system. The US Department of Labor describes affirmative action as the banning of discrimination.

Affirmative Action remains one of the more complicated and controversial topics dealt with in American society. Affirmative Action is an action or policy designed to protect specific groups who suffer from discrimination, and provide them with programs and special opportunities. These government or private programs were designed to set right historical injustices towards the members of these groups who have suffered things like employment and educational disadvantages from racial discrimination. The goal for these actions are to redress past wrong doings by fixing things like inequalities in employment and pay, as well as increasing opportunities for education. By achieving this, the outcome would restore equal access and opportunity in favor of the members of these groups. These groups generally consist of certain minorities that have suffered from social ills such as slavery and segregation.

I think affirmative action was fair at its inception under Lynden B. Johnson, and throughout the remainder of the 20th century, but I don’t feel it’s fair in society today.

Harassment in the workplace of any type violates the Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, the ADEA of 1967 and the ADA OF 1990 because it is form of discrimination (U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). These laws protect individuals against discrimination in the workplace and allows them to have a voice and speak up without fear. Harassment constitutes as unwanted conduct, which can sometimes be sexual, based on color, sex, race/ religion, disability, national origin and sexual orientation. According to the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (n.d), “anti-discrimination laws prohibit against individuals in retaliation for filing a discrimination charge, testifying, or participating in

Perhaps one of the most divisive issues in the United States is race. While most Americans would rather not talk about it, there are still issues surrounding race that will strike the interest of most citizens. This is perhaps nowhere more true than the debate over affirmative action. Although the United States has made great strides in improving race relations over the past forty years, affirmative action continues to be one of the most controversial policies in America. It has rattle the halls of higher education. It has appeared on the steps of the Supreme Court. And it has divided not only different racial groups, but even members of a single racial group. In fact, I’ve heard some of the most heated conversation over affirmative action between two African Americans. Like myself, many other African Americans believe this policy is one the most effective strategies for leveling what has long been an uneven playing field. However, critics of affirmative action believe this kind of reform does an injustice to the idea of merit. Though no one can deny that minorities and women have made significant steps towards autonomy and equality in American society, there are still wide economic disparities between these groups and white males. While theses issues and controversies surrounding affirmative action can not be resolved easily, the question remains: do we still need affirmative action in America? I say yes, affirmative action was and is needed to achieve full gender and

According to Raymond A. Noe, affirmative action is an organization’s active effort to find opportunities to hire or promote people in a particular group (Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 68). There are various arguments for and against affirmative action. Some believe that it gives certain groups of people an equal opportunity to find employment where they would otherwise be kicked under the rug. Others believe that even though it creates an opportunity for minority groups, the issue of reverse discrimination comes into play where once predominantly white male jobs offerings go to women and minority groups instead. The topic of affirmative action remains very controversial and