Here's the situation: you are hiring for a position at your workplace. You have gone through applications and have weeded out the people you do not want to interview. Phone interviews were held and from that, ten people were brought in for personal interviews. Of those ten people, four stood out exceptionally. One was a man of color, another a white female, the third a white male, and finally a woman of color. All have equal qualifications for the job, all interviewed extremely well, and all could function productively within the company. Who do you choose?
In the United States, there have been laws enacted that make that decision for you. Affirmative action laws say that you hire the woman of color because she is a woman and of a minority race. But what if your workplace has a lot of women working there, and within your workplace, men are in the minority? Should you hire the man of color because within your community, he is the minority in the workplace? Affirmative action laws state that men are not a protected category and should not be given preference for a job over any woman, whether or not there are more or less men working at a given workplace. But if women continue to get preferential treatment in job placement over men, will men have a place in the workforce? Or will their qualifications and abilities continue to give them an advantage over women when applying for a job?
Why should the fact that I'm a woman make me more likely to get a job over a man who is just as qualified as me? While I'm sure I'd be excited to get the job, the fact that affirmative action requires a company to hire a woman or the minority when all conditions are equal, kind of takes away from the accomplishment of getting the job.
If you decide to not follow affirmative action laws, thinking that they are out of date or no longer needed, the choice of who to hire gets even tougher. There is no body of law telling you what to do when all conditions are equal. Someone will interpret any hiring decision you make as a way to rank society--whether you hire the man over the woman could say to someone that your company does not want women in the workplace. Hiring the person of color over the white person could say that you are trying to right historical wrongs by hiring someone of a race who has been mistreated in this country.
Whomever you hire, the process needs to be done in a way where all candidates are treated equally--we are all human no matter what we look like or believe.
In the United States, there have been laws enacted that make that decision for you. Affirmative action laws say that you hire the woman of color because she is a woman and of a minority race. But what if your workplace has a lot of women working there, and within your workplace, men are in the minority? Should you hire the man of color because within your community, he is the minority in the workplace? Affirmative action laws state that men are not a protected category and should not be given preference for a job over any woman, whether or not there are more or less men working at a given workplace. But if women continue to get preferential treatment in job placement over men, will men have a place in the workforce? Or will their qualifications and abilities continue to give them an advantage over women when applying for a job?
Why should the fact that I'm a woman make me more likely to get a job over a man who is just as qualified as me? While I'm sure I'd be excited to get the job, the fact that affirmative action requires a company to hire a woman or the minority when all conditions are equal, kind of takes away from the accomplishment of getting the job.
If you decide to not follow affirmative action laws, thinking that they are out of date or no longer needed, the choice of who to hire gets even tougher. There is no body of law telling you what to do when all conditions are equal. Someone will interpret any hiring decision you make as a way to rank society--whether you hire the man over the woman could say to someone that your company does not want women in the workplace. Hiring the person of color over the white person could say that you are trying to right historical wrongs by hiring someone of a race who has been mistreated in this country.
Whomever you hire, the process needs to be done in a way where all candidates are treated equally--we are all human no matter what we look like or believe.
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