Affirmative Action Empowerment

Affirmative action represents a form of public policy that attempts to advance social justice by expanding educational, employment and other opportunities to traditionally marginalized groups in society. Rupert Barnes Nacoste (87) maintains that affirmative action is "a public policy for which the goal is clear: to empower disenfranchised groups." In the United States, the actual public policy of "affirmative action" was first used in 1965 by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, whose Executive Order 11246 required federal contractors to take "affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated to employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin" (Sykes 1). In 1967, then President Johnson expanded affirmative action to include more than race protection, extending affirmative action benefits to women (Sykes 1). Expansion of protected groups under the umbrella of affirmative action policies is an ongoing trend in contemporary policymaking, with the elderly, disabled and others coming under the affirmative action policy umbrella.

Since 1967, various laws and policies have been created in the U.S. to undermine discrimination and increase empowerment of marginalized groups throughout American social institutions. Also since then, various efforts have been undertaken by advocacy groups and policymakers to repeal affirmative action by those claiming it represents "reverse discrimination." In January,

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. Overall the college-going rates for men and women ages 18-24 were nearly the same (43 percent for men and 44 percent for women). . The number of minorities enrolled in college increased 2.7 percent to an all-time high of nearly 3.6 million. . Students of color at the professional and undergraduate levels increased by 2.9 and 3.0 percent, respectively. . Between 1990 and 2002, bachelor degree awards were up 51.6 percent for minority students. . Compared to 9 percent in 1995, 14 percent of all doctorates awarded to U.S. citizens in 2002 went to minorities. . The number of full-time faculty members of color increased by 47.7 percent in the period from 1992-2002. . In 2002, women held 43.4 percent of all full-time faculty positions in institutions of higher learning in the U.S., compared to 27.6 percent of women in 1985. (Making 2-6) It is in an educational context that affirmative action empowerment programs seem to have failed to work on the same level as those in the workplace or employment opportunities. While one might be inclined to assume that affirmative action empowerment policy and programs in academia would

Category: Economics - A