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Basically to sum things up we really need Affirmative Action to level the playing field. Its unreasonable to just take our society back to the civil rights era. I feel that it is essential to keep this program alive!

Women in Education

Today, I have read so many articles about affirmative action. Some were really interesting others seemed to be pretty cut and dry. I found the following article very interesting. According to Discrimination Against Women and Girls in Education: Why Affirmative Action Remains Essential (http://www.civilrights.org/issues/affirmative/remote-page.jsp?itemID=28326556), "Standardized Testing Unfairly Hurts Talented Female Students Standardized tests, including the SAT and PSAT, play a decisive role in determining which college a student attends and whether she receives scholarship money. Unfortunately, these tests are flawed assessment tools: although these tests are designed to be an indicator of future performance, young women earn higher grades in high school and in college than boys,(8) while consistently scoring below boys on standardized tests.(9) In addition to evidence of gender bias, studies have documented racial, ethnic, and cultural biases in these tests.(10) Nevertheless, these tests are still used in awarding critical scholarship money and have an enormous impact on girls' educational opportunities: boys get the majority of scholarships based on SAT and PSAT test scores, receiving, for example, an estimated $15 million of the $25 million awarded yearly by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.(11) Women Face Barriers in Math, Science and Other Nontraditional Areas, and in Attainment of Advanced Degrees While women now comprise just over half of undergraduates nationwide, they remain excluded from or underrepresented in key nontraditional areas of study, such as engineering, mathematics, and physical sciences. The relative absence of girls and young women in math and science programs has important implications for the career paths they pursue as adults. Girls without math and science backgrounds are less likely to pursue professional careers and therefore less likely to be prepared to enter positions that will provide them with the earning potential necessary to support their families. Gender differences in math and science grow as students approach secondary school. In third grade, girls think they are good in math in numbers equal to boys, but by high school, girls have begun to doubt strongly their confidence in math.(12) Once in high school, girls are less likely than boys to take the most advanced math or physics courses,(13) and even young women who are highly competent in math and science are less likely to pursue scientific or technological careers.(14) Women receive only about 16% of undergraduate and 11% of doctorate degrees in engineering; less than 22% of doctorate degrees in math and physical sciences; 28% of undergraduate and 15% of doctorate degrees in computer and information sciences.(15) By contrast, women continue to earn the largest proportion of degrees at all levels (associate through doctoral degrees) in fields they have traditionally dominated, such as health professions (which includes nursing, physical therapy and health administration) (83%) and education (77%).(16) The rate of movement of women into nontraditional fields of study has been slow. The proportion of degrees earned by women in the physical sciences increased between 1984-85 and 1992-93 by only 4 percentage points, and women's share of engineering degrees increased by only 2 percentage points during the same period.(17) Although the number of women receiving bachelor's and master's degrees has been steadily rising, women still receive only 38.5% of doctoral and 40% of all first-professional degrees.(18) Women Hold Lower Ranking College Faculty Positions With Lower Pay Women are still nowhere near achieving parity in faculty positions in higher education. They are concentrated in the lower ranks of faculty, and their salaries lag behind those of their male counterparts. Indeed, most of the recent gains for minorities and women are among visiting staff and temporary lecturers, not full-time staff. Women were approximately one-third of all full- and part-time faculty employed by U.S. colleges and universities in 1992, and only 18% of all full professors. By contrast, half of all lecturers were women. And 41% of all female faculty were employed part time, while only 29% of male faculty were part time.(19) Women of color have made even smaller gains, comprising only 1.5% of full-time professors nationwide.(20) Women faculty members continue to earn lower average salaries than their male counterparts at all levels. A survey released by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in April 1996 found that the salary gap between male and female university professors has remained constant, with men receiving about 30% more than women, even after adjusting for differences in age and hours worked.(21) Women in academia remain concentrated in certain departments. For example, nationwide, women make up nearly all of the faculty in nursing (98%), but only 6% in engineering.(22) Stanford University reported in 1993 that in 11 departments it had no women faculty, and in 30 departments (43% of all departments) it had no tenured women faculty. Nationwide, women faculty members are less likely than their male counterparts to have tenure or to hold tenure-track appointments. The AAUP survey found that less than 50% of all female faculty had tenure status, compared with 72% of their male peers.(23) Athletic Opportunities for Young Women Are Limited While women are over half of undergraduates in our colleges and universities, their athletic opportunities are still severely limited. The availability of athletic scholarships dramatically increases young women's ability to pursue a college education, and helps them develop self-confidence and critical leadership skills. Nationwide, women are only 37% of all college varsity athletes."

I found all this very interesting because I am a female that struggles with the subject of mathematics. Is it due to discrimination issues? I find it interesting to think that maybe the tests very unfair so that may be why I have difficulty in that area.

Do we still Need Affirmative Action Today? The Stats

Some people feel that affirmative action is no longer needed. Some people feel its vital to our society as we know it today. My opinion is that we still need it. Here is why I feel this way taken fromWhy Affirmative Action is Still Needed http://www.civilrights.org/issues/affirmative/remote-page.jsp?itemID=28326930:

• In 1999, median annual earnings for full-time white male employees were $39,331. The wage gap showed African-American men earned 77 percent of what white males earned, or $30,297; for African-American women, it was even less - 64 percent, at $25,142. ("Money Income in the United States," U.S. Census Bureau, September 2000, Table 7)
• College educated African-American women annually earn only a little over $800 more than white male high school graduates and $17,727 less than college educated white men. ("Money Income in the United States," U.S. Census Bureau, September 2000, Table 10)
• Research conducted by The Fair Employment Council of Greater Washington, Inc. confirms that racial discrimination in employment continues to exist to a high degree. When African-American "testers" were sent out to apply for jobs with identical resumes and interviewing techniques as white "tester" applicants, African-Americans fared significantly worse than whites in 24 percent of the tests. Whites who were interviewed received job offers at four times the rate of African-Americans who were interviewed. When both testers received the same position, whites received higher wage offers than African-Americans 17 percent of the time. (Fair Employment Council of Greater Washington, Inc., "Measuring Employment: Discrimination Through Controlled Experiments," Review of Black Political Economy, Summer 1994)
• Affirmative action programs have worked to increase diversity and correct patterns of discrimination. As a result of such programs, doctoral awards to African-Americans rose 34 percent between 1988 -1993; however African-Americans still account for only 4 percent of all doctoral degrees earned. (Diversity & Affirmative Action in Higher Education, American Association of University Professors)
• Since the 1980's, minority and women students have earned increasing numbers of degrees. African-Americans experienced small to moderate increases in all degree categories in 1997, ranging from a 3.2 percent increase at the bachelor's degree level to a 10.2 percent increase at the master's degree level. (Seventeenth Annual Status Report on Minorities in Higher Education 1999-2000, American Council on Education, 2000

Stats on Affirmative Action in Schools

I found some more statistics concerning affirmative action as it relates to education. The information goes along with an earlier post I made concerning the anti-affirmative action movement head by Ward Connerly. According to Consequences of Ward Connerly's Anti-Affirmative Initiatives (http://www.civilrights.org/issues/affirmative/remote-page.jsp?itemID=28328450):

• Connerly, a former member of the University of California Board of Regents, has led a series of attacks against affirmative action at the state level since 1995.
  
• Connerly is the key figure behind the 1996 enactment of California's Proposition 209, which eliminated the state's use of affirmative action in higher education, public contracting, and hiring.
  He was also the key figure behind Initiative 200 (I-200) in Washington State, where in 1998 voters approved the ban of the use of affirmative action in higher education, public contracting, and hiring.
• Language of Proposition 209 and I-200: "The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting"
• Initiatives designed to encourage the number of women to pursue fields where they have traditionally been underrepresented, such as math and science studies, were no longer permitted
• Further, pre-college programs that encourage underrepresented minority groups or girls to apply to college or pursue nontraditional academic courses were likely prohibited if targeted exclusively to women or minorities

Following enactment of Proposition 209, minority admissions at colleges and universities experienced a significant drop.

• For example, at the University of California at Berkeley, 8000 students were offered admission for the fall 1998 term. Only 191 students were black (compared with 562 students in 1997) and 434 students were Hispanic (compared with 1,045 students in 1997
• While the University of California system has made some gains in increasing the number of underrepresented minorities admitted to the colleges and universities, the numbers still fare poorly
• In fact, the overall percentage of enrolled underrepresented minorities declined at both University of California-Berkeley and UCLA, the two largest schools in the UC System. For example, at UCLA, the number of black students from California admitted dropped from 3.3 percent to just 2.8 percent in the fall of 2003.
• In addition, minority enrollment numbers in the UC medical schools and law schools still have not rebounded to pre-Proposition 209 levels, which were consistently higher than 20 percent. The enrollment percentage for underrepresented students in the first-year class for UC medical schools in 2002 was 16.5 percent. The proportion of underrepresented students in the law schools was 16.2 percent of the first-year class.

Statistics: Women are getting the short end of the Stick

I recent

ly found some statistics concerning women and their fight for equal opportunity and pay in the workforce. These are according to Why Women Should Vote - For Equal Pay and Job Opportunities (http://www.civilrights.org/issues/affirmative/remote-page.jsp?itemID=28328930):


• Two-thirds of workers over age 16 who work at or below the minimum wage are women. The buying power of the federal minimum wage ($5.15/hr) is at its lowest level in 51 years
• For a woman supporting herself and two children, living on the minimum wage puts her family 20% below the poverty level. In fact, since 2000, the number of women and children living in poverty, and even extreme poverty, has increased
• The costs of gas, health care and other necessities keep rising. A minimum-wage worker has to work over 11 hours just to pay for one tank of gas at today's prices!
• Women dominate some of the lowest-paying fields and are still left out of many others. Parking lot attendants, 87% of whom are men, earn more per week than child care workers, 95% of whom are women
• The income of most families with children, especially female-headed families, has declined since 2000.
• Women on average earn only about 77¢ for every $1.00 earned by men - meaning that for every $100 she earns, a typical woman has $23 less to spend on groceries, housing, child care, or other expenses. The pay gap means the average woman had to work until April 2006 to make what the average man made by the end of 2005.
• Women of color fare even worse: African-American women earn only 67¢, and Latinas only 56¢, for every $1.00 earned by white men.
  Female registered nurses earn 8% less than their male colleagues. Female doctors earn 39% less than their male colleagues.
• The pay gap follows women into retirement: unmarried women in the workforce today will receive, on average, about $8,000/year less in retirement income than their male counterparts
  
  Ladies this is why we need to vote for Hillary!
  
  
  
  
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More about the man that wants to ban affirmative action

In my last blog I had stated that some states are wanting to vote out affirmative action. At the head of this movement was a man named Ward Connerly. I found him very interesting because he is trying to toss out a program that he himself benefited from. I googled his name to find out some more information on him. I found that he received government contracts for his business from an outreach program from affirmative action. According to Setbacks for Connerly (http://www.civilrights.org/issues/affirmative/remote-page.jsp?itemID=34260731), "California businessman and former University of California Regent Ward Connerly's state-based campaign to end equal opportunity programs suffered setbacks in Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Arizona in recent weeks.
Following the passage of the anti-affirmative action ballot initiative in Michigan in 2006, Connerly announced his plan to introduce and enact ballot initiatives amending constitutions in five states – Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma – that would eliminate equal opportunity programs in higher education, employment, and contracting.
Similar Connerly-sponsored initiatives were passed by voters in California in 1996 and Washington in 1998.
Affirmative action advocates in the five states battling Connerly's efforts have been mobilizing coalitions and other efforts in support of equal opportunity programs." The article also goes on to advise that Connerly and his allies lost significant political battles in the state legislatures of Arizona and Nebraska. I personally am very glad that the political powers that be or so to speak have shut him down. I feel that he is a huge hypocrite! He is trying to fight a new civil rights movement that could reverse our society.

Some States Want to Overturn

Affirmative action has been active in this country since the civil rights movement. From what I have read it pretty much went along with the ruling because it was needed to ensure social justice for everyone. However, there are some states that want to see an end to this program. According to Attempts to Overturn Affirmative Action (http://www.now.org/issues/affirm/04-10-08ballot.html), "The right wing is at it again, gathering signatures in five states in an effort to place anti-affirmative action initiatives on the ballots for the November election. For months, Ward Connerly and his band of anti-opportunity crusaders have been working overtime in Colorado, Missouri, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Nebraska to make sure that the anti-woman, anti-civil rights, anti-affirmative action initiatives have enough qualified signatures to get on the ballots. Connerly himself is a multi-millionaire who was awarded government contracts as part of affirmative action outreach, and then he turned around and led the successful fight to ban affirmative action at the University of California in admissions, employment and contracting."
As you just read the man that wants to ban affirmative action programs is also a person that received monetary gain because of the program. I feel that is really hypocritical of him! The anti-affirmative action seeks to:


Eliminate programs that help women achieve pay equity with men;
Eliminate programs that encourage women to enter fields where they are underrepresented and could earn higher wages;
Eliminate outreach and other programs that inform women and minorities of opportunities to bid on and earn public contracts;
Eliminate programs that encourage female and minority students at the elementary and high school level to excel in reading, science and math; and
Eliminate scholarships and programs that encourage women and minorities to enter medical, science and engineering careers.

After I read this I just felt that this is only taking our society back in time. I may not always agree that affirmative action is needed for school admissions but I do agree that women do deserve the same working wages of any man. The anti affirmative action seeks to turn our society upside down by creating an unequal playing field for minorities, women, and those who face ridicual because of their religion. There is no social justice in this!

Americans with disabilities are also offered a form of protection under Affirmative Action laws. In the past society seemed to isolate and segregate people with disabilities. Employers would often overlook a person in a wheelchair for a person that was more mobile purely because they weren't sure how that would impact their environment. The American Disabilities Act is a precedent that society must uphold. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/ts_search.pl?title=42&sec=12101 I found that Congress felt that this type of discrimination was not to be tolerated. Everyone has the right to equal treatment under the Constitution.

I recently read, "Anglos (Caucasians) receive 52 percent more job offers than some minority groups, particularly Hispanics," according to Bergmann, Barbara. In Defense of Affirmative Action . New York: Basic Books, 1996: 50-1. I found that a harsh reality of what faces minorities in our country. I feel this is one reason that we see high poverty levels among these groups. Its hard for them to provide for their families when they can't find work. I found this information in the following site: http://aad.english.ucsb.edu/docs/berg.econ.comp.html

This article also includes a study that was conducted among young males. The study team sent young men out to look for a job. One was black and the other white. The testers were sent with the same qualifications, same education background, and similar job experience. The white job seekers were offered the job 45% more often than the tester that was African American. I don't understand how employers justify this. I feel that these employers need to be scrutinized for these practices.







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I have tried to write about my own opinion on Affirmative Action. I think whoever reads this has a sense that my bleeding heart is overwhelmed on the subject! I don't feel that taking away Affirmative Action could ever benefit our society as a whole but in all fairness I want to include some information on the con side of the issue as well. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199311/reverse-racism
The link above is a site that discusses the cons of the issue as well. The article basically says that reverse rasicm is an issue with this subject. I agree with the old anaglogy..Two wrongs don't make a right. I will stick to my guns on this one. I don't feel that form a social justice stand point our society can benefit from going away from this program.

I have heard of some opposition to Affirmative Action. It has been said that by allowing someone a job because they are a minority is a form of reverse discrimination. I found that the numbers do not lie on this issue. "Much of the opposition to affirmative action is framed on the grounds of so-called "reverse discrimination and unwarranted preferences." In fact, less than 2 percent of the 91,000 employment discrimination cases pending before the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission are reverse discrimination cases. Under the law as written in Executive Orders and interpreted by the courts, anyone benefiting from affirmative action must have relevant and valid job or educational qualifications," according to http://www.now.org/nnt/08-95/affirmhs.html

As a female I found this subject to be very important because as we all know there is still a lot of work to be done to have an "equal playing ground" when it comes to men and women of any color in the work force. According to http://www.now.org/nnt/08-95/affirmhs.html, "In 1967, Johnson expanded the Executive Order to include affirmative action requirements to benefit women." So, think about that for a second. Before, President Johnson there was no such thing as equal rights for women in the workforce. Women could be denyed a job purely based on the fact that they were a female. Of course, in America today we know that this type of discrimination can't be allowed. It is hard to fathom the fact that women were not allowed to have the same rights as everyone else enjoyed. I am so grateful as a female that Affirmative Action became a law so that all minorities in our country can be judged based on their skill and not on their gender, ethnicity, or religion.

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New Article

I recently read a new article that was written about Affirmative Action as it pertains to education. As many of you may or may not know Affirmative Action is used throughout colleges and universities in our country. This affects all of us because it means that someone that is a minority may be accepted on the basis of race, religion, or handicap over someone that may have better grades. I know that this sounds really bad but after reading the article I had to rethink my original opinion. I hadn't originally considered the fact that the schools that are in more upper class neighborhoods have more funds available therefore often providing better educations to those in that district. That means those with the money to give to the schools have better educations than those living in inner city areas. Coming from a social justice perspective, how is this fair? In my opinion, it's only fair to have Affirmative Action in place to allow everyone the same rights. Below is a link to the article. I am sure you will find it interesting.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/08/affirm

I also saw this cartoon and found it fitting for the subject. Remember all Americans deserve the same rights!




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What is affirmative action?

Affirmative Action is a government program designed to actively promote the advancement of minorities. It allows for equal opportunity for jobs and some government programs. The program was originally designed to balance the workforce. Today, we also see the Affirmative Action concept used when it comes to qualifying for law schools or medical schools as well. In my opinion, from a social justice standpoint this program is still very valuable to our society. The Affirmative Action plans makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religious belief, sexual orientation, or disability. Our federal government makes the Affirmative Action Compliance Program a requirement when it comes to funding for recipients. I feel like this program has its good and bad points. Again, in my opinion we need this to ensure a more equal balance in our workforce or our schools.