Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This statement will always ring true especially on the subject of equal opportunity employment and Affirmative Action. While Affirmative Action seemed to be a hot topic in the past, it is still one that should continue to be addressed. Affirmative Action is needed in the American workplace to improve morale and create equity among all Americans.
The history of Affirmative Action (AA) is a long one. The first federal law passed was The Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law started the term, “Equal Opportunity Employment” and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The first legislation to pass was Executive Order number 11246 on September 24, 1965 (Aberson & Haag, 2003). This essentially stated that employers needed to take affirmative action to ensure no one was discriminated against for their race, religion, color, or country of origin. In more recent years, employers have added sexual orientation, abilities, and ethnicity to their list of nondiscrimination.
Unfortunately, during these times white men were not always accepting of women and minorities in the workplace. Women who joined the workplace in the 1960s and 1970s were expected to do chores for the men in the workplace. They would also be sexually harassed and abused by their male coworkers (MacLean, 1999). Minorities were still treated unfairly and with inferiority. On many occasions minority civil rights organizations stepped in to assist women in their struggles. For instance, in New York City in 1977, women were finally given the right to join the Fire Department. The firemen harassed, abused, and even put their fellow female fire fighters in life threatening danger. The
