Affirmative Action Plans Research Articles

Managing in a Regressive Legal Environment: Employers Need to Stay the Course of Nondiscrimination

Federal law expanded civil rights and equal opportunity to all employees. Major U.S. employers have embraced the expansion by using affirmative action plans and diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. Concerns raised by a more conservative Supreme Court and its reversal of affirmative action in higher education, the recent enactment of regressive state laws aimed to diminish the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and invalidate affirmative action and DEI efforts should not be allowed to discourage the progress made. Employers can and should stay the course of expanded civil rights and equal opportunity in the workplace for all firm employees.

Goodluck Jonathan, The Champion of Women in the Contemporary Nigeria, 2010-2015: An Appraisal

The meteoric ascendency of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to the office of the number one citizen of Nigeria is not just seen by many as providential but could be also termed as a journey of grace. The Goodluck Jonathan’s led administration spanned from 2010 to 2015. He was elected as the 7th democratic president of Nigeria in 2011 general/ Presidential election for a four year tenure which ended in 2015 and in which he failed the bid to be reelected. The administration of President Goodluck Jonathan was characterized or bedeviled by severe criticism, a development which contributed largely to his exit in 2015 after just a tenure in office. These criticisms were apparently predicated on a number of pertinent national issues which were economic, socio-political and even religious in nature. The worst being the inability of the government to combat the upsurge in Boko Haram menace, their failure to rescue the alleged abducted Chibok Girls as well as massive cases of corruption among top public office holders and the presumed laissez-faire attitude of the president in addressing the ugly development. In spite of these avalanche of criticisms however, one major area of interest in which the Jonathan’s administration was greatly commended even by the international community was on women empowerment. The administration was adjudged to have performed well above international average of 20%, and it is in view of this that the idea behind this paper is conceived, to appraise the effort of the president in enhancing the status of the Nigerian women. Jonathan appointed many women into positions of authorities and provided avenues by which a good number of them were elected into political offices. There was also empowerment programs such as skill acquisitions and micro-credit loan schemes meant to alleviate the sufferings of the ordinary women and put smiles on their faces. Although this administration could not realize the 5% affirmative action plan recommended as benchmark in Beijing, China in 1985, it is however good to know that about 33% of this well above international average was said to have been achieved. These and a few related issues were discoursed in this paper. Feminist theory was adopted as a theoretical framework to explain the gender based discrimination against women and therefore focuses on promotion of women’s rights and interests. In view of this, measures that could help to end this unhealthy practices and that can free women from the shackles of age-long domination of men were thus suggested.

When is an Affirmative Action Plan not 'Narrowly Tailored' or Unduly Harms Other Applicants? A Statistical Re-Examination of the Data in Grutter v. Bollinger and a More Focused Alternative Plan

When is an Affirmative Action Plan not 'Narrowly Tailored' or Unduly Harms Other Applicants? A Statistical Re-Examination of the Data in Grutter v. Bollinger and a More Focused Alternative Plan

Health equity & tribal populations: Challenges & way forward.

Health equity & tribal populations: Challenges & way forward.

Centering Whiteness and Entrenching the Myth of Race-Neutral Alternatives to Affirmative Action

In recent decades, White plaintiffs have begun pushing back against schools’ attempts to rectify abysmal levels of campus diversity through race-based affirmative action policies. Students who did not stand to benefit from affirmative action began to seek legal relief against schools implementing such policies, alleging that race-based affirmative action violated federal constitutional rights to equal protection. In addressing these disputes, courts have required schools to first consider race-neutral alternatives to race-based admissions policies to achieve their diversity goals—in recent years, the standard has evolved into a requirement that no workable race-neutral alternative exist for a school to maintain a race-based affirmative action program. Such a requirement appears inconsistent with the overall goals of race-based affirmative action plans—how can a school which hopes to increase racial diversity achieve such diversity through non-racial means? In this Comment, I argue that the current jurisprudence on affirmative action in institutions of higher education rests on the continued centering of Whiteness, ultimately creating a doctrine which attempts to achieve a “painless” solution to racial injustice through prioritizing the need to ensure no race-neutral alternatives exist. Ultimately, this “painless” cure places a substantial roadblock on the path to true racial equity in higher education. By White centering, I refer to the ways in which Whiteness is prioritized and acts as the focal point for any discussion of diversity and racial equity—and, in this instance, affirmative action—with non-White interests fashioned as a lesser priority.

Racial and Ethnic Ancestry of the Nation’s Black Law Students: An Analysis of Data From The LSSSE Survey

Racial and Ethnic Ancestry of the Nation’s Black Law Students: An Analysis of Data From The LSSSE Survey

Relevant and current issues faced by American institutions of higher education as they attempt to design and implement affirmative action plans vis-à-vis admissions and faculty/staff hiring policies and practices

This article provides an overview of opposing perspectives on affirmative action and makes a case for affirmative action on the grounds of diversity and from the perspective of a necessity to remedy past discrimination (Hasnas, 2018; Wright & Garces, 2018; Kaplin & Lee, 2013). My argument employs Hurtado, Milem, Clayton-Pedersen, and Allen’s (2010) four (4) dimensions of educational programs and practices needed in assessing diversity in the institution: historical legacy of inclusion/exclusion of racial/ethnic groups; structural diversity regarding numerical representation ; the psychological climate of perceptions and attitudes ; and the behavioral climate dimension. Additionally, because the expressed consideration of race and gender in admissions and hiring processes have legal implications, I provide legal guidelines and precedents to mitigate litigation.

Statistical Procedures for Assessing the Need for an Affirmative Action Plan: A Reanalysis of Shea v. Kerry

In the 1980s, reports from Congress and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) presented statistical evidence showing that employees in the Foreign Service were overwhelmingly White male, especially in the higher positions. To remedy this historical discrimination, the State Department instituted an affirmative action plan during 1990–1992 that allowed females and race-ethnic minorities to apply directly for mid-level positions. A White male employee claimed that he had been disadvantaged by the plan. The appellate court unanimously held that the manifest statistical imbalance supported the Department’s instituting the plan. One judge identified two statistical issues in the analysis of the data that neither party brought up. This article provides an empirical guideline for sample size and a one-sided Hotelling’s T2 test to answer these problems. First, an approximate rule is developed for the minimum number of expected minority appointments needed for a meaningful statistical analysis of under-representation. To avoid the multiple comparison issue when several protected groups are involved, a modification of Hotelling’s T2 test is developed for testing the null hypothesis of fair representation against a one-sided alternative of under-representation in at least one minority group. The test yields p-values less than 1 in 10,000 indicating that minorities were substantially under-represented. Excluding secretarial and clerical jobs led to even larger disparities.Supplemental materials for this article are available online.

Estimating Effects of Affirmative Action in Policing: A Replication and Extension

Many police departments in the United States have experienced externally-imposed affirmative action plans designed to increase the shares of nonwhite and female police officers. This paper examines whether externally-imposed affirmative action plans have impacted the rates of reported offenses and/or offenses cleared by arrest, seeking to replicate and extend Lott (2000) and McCrary (2007). Using a series of modern econometric strategies, including difference-in-differences decomposition and generalized synthetic controls, we do not find a significant effect of court-imposed affirmative action plans on the rates of reported offenses or reported offenses cleared by arrest, a finding consistent with McCrary (2007). We also consider whether unlitigated agencies change their practices due to the threat of litigation, but, like McCrary (2007), are unable to identify causal evidence of such threat effects. We suggest that, in the spirit of Miller and Segal (2018), future research seek to estimate the potentially racially heterogeneous treatment effects of race-based affirmative action plans on public safety outcomes.

Do Female Officers Improve Law Enforcement Quality? Effects on Crime Reporting and Domestic Violence

AbstractWe study the impact of the integration of women in U.S. policing between the late 1970s and early 1990s on violent crime reporting and domestic violence (DV). Along these two key dimensions, we find that female officers improved police quality. Crime victimization data reveal that as female representation increases among officers in an area, violent crimes against women in that area, and especially DV, are reported to the police at significantly higher rates. There are no such effects for violent crimes against men or from increases in the female share of civilian police employees. Furthermore, increases in female officer shares are followed by significant declines in rates of intimate partner homicide and non-fatal domestic abuse. These effects are all consistent between fixed effects models with controls for economic and policy variables and models that focus exclusively on increases in female police employment driven by externally imposed affirmative action plans following litigation for employment discrimination.

Discussion of Education Laws for Multicultural Students in Korea

우리나라의 인구통계를 보면 외국인노동자와 결혼이민자 등 국내 체류외국인이 증가하면서, 대한민국 사회도 본격적인 다문화사회에 진입하고 있다. 다문화가족이 증가하면서, 이들 가정내의 다문화학생 수도 지속적으로 증가하고 있다. 그러나 다문화학생들의 기본인권인 교육권에 대한 보장은 현실적으로 법적 근거가 미약하여 그 한계가 노출되고 있다. 우리나라 해당 법률에서 정의하거나 범위를 정한 다문화학생의 범위 등에 대한 논란조차도 다문화학생들의 교육받을 권리침해에 해당될 수 있다. 다문화가족지원법 및 청소년복지지원법의 소관부처인 여성가족부는 다문화가족 구성원인 아동･청소년 및 이주배경 청소년을 다문화학생으로 정의하고 있고, 재한외국인처우기본법의 소관부처인 법무부는 결혼이민자 및 그 자녀를 다문화학생으로 간주하고 있다. 정부의 관계부처 합동 이주아동 사회차별 해소 추진계획에서는 포괄적으로 이주아동 전체를 다문화학생으로 보고 있다. 교육부와 지방교육청은 불법체류 외국인 가정의 자녀도 다문화학생으로 보고 있다. 교육을 행정부처인 교육부와 지방교육청의 논리를 적용하면 불법체류 외국인 가정의 미등록 아동 등은 다문화학생으로의 법적 근거가 없거나 희박하여 중요 기본 인권인 교육권 자체도무시될 처지에 놓이게 된다. 보다 심각한 것은 다문화가족의 다문화학생에 대한 교육권 보장의 개별법이 없는 상태에서 정부의 소관부처 법률에 따라 충돌하여 위헌논쟁까지 있다는 점이다.이에 본 연구는 다문화학생들의 교육받을 권리와 관련해서 현행 교육관련 법의 한계와 문제점을 고찰하고, 다문화학생들의 교육받을 권리, 즉 인간의 기본 권리로서 다문화학생들의 교육권 보장을 위한 법의 개선방향을 제시하는데 그 목적이 있다. 연구결과로서 첫째, 교육관련 법들이 명문화한 다문화학생의 교육권은 제한적이었다. 둘째, 다문화, 다문화가족, 다문화학생 정의와 범위가 확대되고 통일되도록 개정되어야 하며, 다문화학생들의 교육권 보장을 위한 법적 근거 마련이 시급하였다. 셋째, 다문화교육을 포괄하고, 다 문화학생의 교육을 위한 독립적인 교육법 마련이 요구되었다.According to the recent Korean census, the number of multicultural students has been increasing due to the increase of multicultural families. However, multicultural students education rights as their fundamental human rights have not been practically guaranteed because of lack of legal grounds. Even the issues concerning concepts and scope of multicultural students defined by the current related laws in Korea can be considered infringement of their education rights. Multicultural Families Support Act and Juvenile Welfare Support Act which fall under the jurisdiction of The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family define the multicultural students as children and youth from multicultural families, and Act on the Treatment of Foreigners in Korea which falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice defines multicultural students as married immigrants and their children. The affirmative action plan for immigrant children by the government s ministries and offices concerned consider all immigrant children as multicultural students. The Ministry of Education and the provincial educational offices include children from illegal immigrant families in the definition of multiclutural students. According to the Ministry of Education and the provincial educational offices which administer education in Korea, unregistered children of illegal immigrant families have little or no legal grounds and their educational human rights as their fundamental human rights might be in danger of being disregarded. A more serious issue is that multicultural students educational human rights might be argued whether they are against the constitution or not due to the conflicts among the governmental ministries and offices concerned since there are no individual laws regarding their education human rights. Thus, the objective of this study is to investigate the limitations and problems of the current laws on education concerning the multicultural students education rights and to provide meaningful insights into the proper direction of the reform of the laws on their education rights. The findings of the research are as follows: 1) multicultural students education human rights stated on the current related laws are limited; 2) the concepts and scope of multiculturalism, multicultural families, and multicultural students should be extended and unified, since the provision of legal grounds for the multicultural students education human rights is urgent; and 3) the need for the provision of independent educational laws for the multicultural students and the inclusion of multicultural education.

Dual Working Couples: Blessings or Burden

Objective - To examine the problems of dual working couples in the Pakistani context, examining their problems and suggesting measures to be taken by organizations to minimize their ill-effects on family structures and the organizations. Methodology/Technique - There were two different questionnaires designed for HR managers and working couples, the respondents for this study. Findings - The findings support the belief that social factors stand out as the main reason for minimal participation of working couples in productive activities. The female gender still attributes a higher priority to family life and do not pursue professional career after the mid-career stage. National participation of educated females, especially in the urban centres will remain stagnant if affirmative action plans are not designed to encourage dual working couples to remain productive. Novelty - Employers need to tailor their policies according to the preferences of couples in order to retain their skilled employees and obtain productive output from them. Joint family living is presently solving the problems being encountered by dual working couples, but it is fast fading in cities. Type of Paper - Empirical Keywords: Adverse Working Conditions; Affirmative Action Plan; Benefits; Dual Working Couples; Flexible Work-Hours; Pakistani Workforce; Telecommuting. JEL Classification: J21, J24.

Targeting Inconsistency: The Why and How of Studying Disagreement in Adjudication

Much of the judicial decision making research has focused on inter-judge inconsistency. How much more likely is a panel of all Democratic appointees to decide in favor of civil rights plaintiffs than is a panel of all Republican appointees? How does the presence of a black judge on a panel affect the likelihood that an affirmative action plan will be found constitutional? How large are the inter-judge disparities in asylum grant rates? How inconsistent are social security disability decisions? But despite the attention paid to disagreement, the vast majority of research shares a peculiar feature: it ignores much of judicial disagreement. By coding decisions on a single dimension (e.g., liberal versus conservative or grant versus deny) and grouping judges according to demographic characteristics, researchers are mediating the study of inconsistency through intuitions about the nature of judicial disagreement. For reasons of both theory and policy, we argue for an agnostic, data-driven approach to the study of inconsistency. Using a newly collected dataset of appellate review in the Ninth Circuit, we show how machine-learning methods can help researchers make progress on previously identified challenges to the study of inconsistency. We also briefly discuss how our approach to inconsistency could be used to evaluate adjudication systems and changes to those systems as well as address debates between legal realists and formalists.

Nomination committee-board gender diversity nexus in Ghana

This study assesses the link between nomination committees' presence and size as well as male directors on nomination committee and gender diversity in Ghanaian boardrooms. We use a dataset of 25 listed and 20 unlisted Ghanaian firms for January 2006 to December 2012; nine years after the Ghana Government endorsed an Affirmative Action Plan to achieve 40% representation of women on all boards by the year 2000. We employ probit and logit regressions to test our hypotheses. Listed firms and financial institutions are more likely to have more gender diverse boards. By contrast, we have no evidence to support the link between board gender diversity and board size, firm age, firm size, firm ownership, board composition and nomination committees' presence and size as well as male directors on nomination committee. Overall, our results raise questions on the appropriateness of the continual use of both the agency and resource dependency theories in explaining board gender diversity in developing economies' perspective. This study is the first of its kind, particularly within developing economies.

Our Cutting Edge Isn't Cutting it: Why Public Administration Should Be the First Discipline to Implement a Social Class-Based Affirmative Action Plan for Hiring Professors

During the past several years, various writers and commentators have argued that as part of their affirmative action efforts, universities should enroll more students of working-class origins because socioeconomic integration ensures greater social equity, democracy, and intellectual diversity. The present study shows that the justifications applied to student diversity pertain equally well to professors. This discussion proposes that if public administration were first to use socioeconomic status-based affirmative in faculty hiring, it would prove the discipline’s willingness to meet its self-imposed obligation to be cutting edge, a promise studies have shown it has yet to fulfill.

Affirmative Actions for Women Empowerment in India: Assessing Impact of Social Protection on Women Empowerment, Fertility & Welfare

We examine the effect of social schemes in India on women empowerment, fertility & female welfare. The balancing between ‘Men’ and ‘Women’ is sine qua non for sustainability of human race. The present world scenario is tilted in favour of men endangering sustainability of human race. The angle of this tilt might vary from one society to another but majorly it is unbalanced. This hinders social, economic and political participation of women; an important half of world population. For sustainable social and economic development, participation of women in political process is indispensable. There are many reasons for non-participation ranging from sheer ignorance and helplessness to apathy towards it. But without ensuring active participation of this 'half' in political & economic process, sustainable and cohesive society is a day dreaming. Legislation and legal provisions are instruments to create enabling environment for women to participate in political process and economy. Empowerment flows from rights. This paper critically analyze pro-women legislations if has acted for the purposes they were enacted. The Directive Principles of Constitutional Law of India empowers government to create exceptions in principle of equality and frame affirmative action plan for the socio-economic welfare of the women. Article 39 provides equality between men & women in opportunities, wages and treatment. Article 42 provides that the State shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.

From Tokens to Quotas: The Hiring and Promoting of African American Males in Corporate America

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by Congress. The immediate result of the Act’s passage, and the creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (E.E.O.C.), was the removal of some hiring and promotional barriers that had historically been placed in front of minorities, and in particular African American males. When these barriers were removed, African American males began to receive long-overdue hiring and promotional opportunities. However, these opportunities were initially viewed as a sign of tokenism. An African American male in a position of authority was frequently viewed as a Token Negro. This tokenism quickly emerged into well-drafted affirmative action plans instituted by many corporations. The results of the plans, in many cases, were institutionalized quota systems to get corporations to a certain level of minority representation. But have these quotas really fostered greater hiring and promotional opportunities for African American males? Has the playing field been leveled? Has the election of Barack Obama signified that African American Males have finally made it? Or are they simply a formal process of increased tokenism with no increase in opportunity? This paper will address these questions, while looking at:-- relevant employment statistics and how African American males have faired since Title VII was instituted, -- the hiring practices of employers -- from the effects of affirmative action and the court’s view of it, to the recruitment process and the effect criminal records have on African American male employability,-- the challenges faced in obtaining equitable pay and promotional opportunities, and -- proposals to help weaken the devastating effects discrimination continues to have on African American males.

Do Female Officers Improve Law Enforcement Quality? Effects on Crime Reporting and Domestic Violence Escalation

We study the impact of the integration of women in US policing between the late 1970s and early 1990s on violent crime reporting and domestic violence escalation. Along these two key dimensions, we find that female officers improved police quality. Using crime victimization data, we find that as female representation increases among officers in an area, violent crimes against women in that area, and especially domestic violence, are reported to the police at significantly higher rates. There are no such effects for violent crimes against men or from increases in the female share among civilian police employees. Furthermore, we find evidence that female officers help prevent the escalation of domestic violence. Increases in female officer representation are followed by significant declines in intimate partner homicide rates and in rates of repeated domestic abuse. These effects are all consistent between fixed effects models with controls for economic and policy variables and models that focus exclusively on increases in female police employment driven by externally imposed affirmative action plans resulting from employment discrimination cases.

Do Female Officers Improve Law Enforcement Quality? Effects on Crime Reporting and Domestic Violence Escalation

We study the impact of the integration of women in US policing between the late 1970s and early 1990s on violent crime reporting and domestic violence. Along these two key dimensions, we find that female officers improved police quality. Using crime victimization data, we find that as female representation increases among officers in an area, violent crimes against women in that area, and especially domestic violence, are reported to the police at significantly higher rates. There are no such effects for violent crimes against men or from increases in the female share among civilian police employees. Furthermore, we find evidence that female officers help prevent the incidence of domestic violence. Increases in female officer representation are followed by significant declines in rates of intimate partner homicide and non-fatal domestic abuse. These effects are all consistent between fixed effects models with controls for economic and policy variables and models that focus exclusively on increases in female police employment driven by externally imposed affirmative action plans resulting from employment discrimination cases.

The Stigma of Affirmative Action: A Stereotyping-Based Theory and Meta-Analytic Test of the Consequences for Performance

Affirmative action plans (AAPs) are designed to facilitate workplace success for members of the groups they target (e.g., women, ethnic minorities), yet may have the ironic effect of stigmatizing AAP targets and, in turn, decreasing their performance outcomes. Prior work has focused on the stigma of incompetence as the primary mechanism that links AAPs to performance; however, the broader social psychological literature suggests that additional mechanisms may also play a role. We use stereotyping theories to develop a more comprehensive model of the pathways through which AAPs limit targets’ performance outcomes. Drawing from the stereotype content model, we propose that the negative effect of AAPs on others’ evaluations of targets’ performance is driven by perceptions of incompetence and low warmth. Drawing from stereotype threat theory, we propose that the negative effect of AAPs on targets’ self-evaluated and objective performance is driven by perceptions of low self-competence, negative state affect, and perceived stereotyping by others. Meta-analytic path analyses support our hypotheses. Our theory and findings demonstrate that multiple mechanisms explain the negative consequences of AAPs for targets’ performance outcomes, highlight differences in reactions to AAP targets by others versus the self, and provide insight into preventing the unintended negative effects of AAPs.