Equal opportunity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Equal opportunity is a descriptive term for an approach intended to provide a certain social environment in which people are not excluded from the activities of society, such as education, employment, or health care, on the basis of immutable traits. Equal opportunity practices include measures taken by organizations to ensure fairness in the employment process.

1 United States Practices
2 Social Theory
3 Criticism of the Equal Opportunity Approach
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] United States Practices

Main article: Equal Opportunity Employment

In the United States, the abbreviation "EOE" is often used to denote "Equal Opportunity Employer".

Equal opportunity practices include those that are race-blind or gender-blind, and those that involve or require affirmative action or reverse discrimination (referred to as 'positive discrimination' in the UK). The United States federal government and various state and local governments require affirmative action in governmental hiring and contracting. Executive Order 11246 (Full Text), which dates from 1965, requires that any entity that receives money from the government have an equal opportunity for all workers, including an affirmative action plan.

[edit] Social Theory

In the pursuit of a meritocracy, equal opportunity is essential.

Equal Opportunity is often considered separate from basic Freedoms. For example, Freedom of Speech is usually not within the realm of Equal Opportunity but rather within basic rights. Equal Opportunity consists of additional elements crucial to a meritocracy, such as:

Consideration for employment, housing, and education free from immutable characteristics such as race, age, or disability;
Equal access to goods and services from the government

In practice, methods for fulfilling equal opportunity can be less than complete or ineffective. Indeed, the means by which to measure the success or failure of equal opportunity policies is unclear. Opportunity itself is often difficult - if not impossible - to accurately measure. Thus, in practice, equal opportunity is said to exist when people with similar abilities reach similar results (equality of outcome) after doing a similar amount of work. Indeed, equal opportunity and equality of outcome are often seen as complementary. Other societal traditions interfere with equality of opportunity, however; for example, as long as wealth, and thus opportunities, can be passed from one generation to another through inheritance, it is unclear how equality of outcome would come about for two children of similar ability, one born into the elite class and one born into the middle or lower class.

[edit] Criticism of the Equal Opportunity Approach

The concept of Equal Opportunity requires that legal censure be taken against those who do not give up their prejudices. Legal censure by the state is objectionable to some. However, in the absence of Equal Opportunity, legal censure would also have to be taken against social and religious activists who aim for equality in society.

Equal opportunity is often criticized on utilitarian grounds because the burden of equal opportunity regulations results in decreased productivity of the businesses, thus reducing well-being of all classes.

Another common criticism of equal opportunity is the perceived inherent bigotry existent in a legally mandated quota system. In the simplest terms, hiring someone based solely on ethnicity, gender, age, religion, political affiliation or sexual orientation is equally as wrong as refusing to hire a person for the same reasons.