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Affirmative Action

 

            Affirmative Action: Helping Women Break Barriers.
            
             Affirmative Action: how is it affecting women in the complex and harsh world that we live in? In its simplicity, Affirmative Action is a catch-all phrase referring to laws, customs, and social policies intended to alleviate the types of discrimination that limit opportunities for a variety of groups in various social institutions. One socially oppressed group that has been helped by Affirmative Action programs is women. Women face many barriers that keep them from advancing into occupations that are at the superior end of employment. When women are given higher-level jobs, they are often confined to specific departments with less authority, which gives them less likelihood to advance into senior managerial jobs. Affirmative Action programs give women the chance to break the barriers and advance into higher paying jobs with more opportunities. .
             Problem.
             Facts show that work force barriers to women are real and stopping their advancement in the workforce. One study clearly shows us one of the various effects of discrimination in the workforce. A study commissioned by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York recently found that the rate of promotion to partnership for male associates was more than three times the rate for female associates in New York law firms (BNA 392). This is not an issue that is confined to only New York law firms, but is also prominent in other business establishments. Lower paying jobs at local banks, department stores, and even grocery stores are also being impacted by unfair promotion practices. Several court cases involving grocery stores found that women had been routinely regulated to lower-wage, dead-end jobs with little or no optimism for advancement while men were hired for jobs that would eventually lead to managerial opportunities and positions. An example of this problem is seen in a case that involved a black woman who asked her manager about promotion opportunities.


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