DOES AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROMOTE GENDER INEQUALITY?

Does Affirmative Action promote gender inequality?

William Johnson

James Madison University

DOES AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROMOTE GENDER INEQUALITY? 2

Abstract

In modern politics the question often comes up as to if Affirmative Action promotes gender

inequality. This research question was chosen for the line of inquiry essay due to the relevance it

has today and because of its political nature. The political nature of this topic intrigues me

because of my interest in politics. Affirmative Action is the preferential hiring practice based on

race or gender status, and some believe that the policy is still needed to bind the gap of

inequality. However, many believe the practice is antiquated and promotes inequality.

Affirmative Action also plays a huge role in the lives of every American, through things such as

hiring practices and college admissions, of which the latter has greatly impacted my peers.
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Does Affirmative Action promote gender inequality?

In America, there is a controversial practice of preferentially hiring those who are

considered disadvantaged. This practice is called Affirmative Action and it is the preferential

hiring practice based on race or gender status to improve employment and education

opportunities. Affirmative Action was created in 1961 to combat racial prejudice, however, in

1967, it was extended to include sex-based discrimination. Today, this policy raises controversy

since many ask the question, “Does Affirmative Action promote gender inequality?” Various

arguments have been made to argue both sides of the question, and ultimately if the policy

should even exist.

In Gary Becker’s article “Affirmative Action programs do not promote equal

opportunity” (2010) he explained why he opposes Affirmative Action and other diversity quota

programs. He argued that Affirmative Action caters to special interest groups and compared it to

other policies that came into fruition at the hands of special interest groups and do not actually

benefit America. Affirmative Action programs also lower standards for minorities and women,

according to Becker. Another argument he made is that America should be a meritocracy, which

means that people should be hired or admitted based upon only their qualification and prestige,

not gender or race. Additionally, he states that companies may face legal issues if they do not

promote those who were given preferential treatment, from Affirmative Action policies, despite

the possibility of them being under or less qualified. The reader is informed that the issue of

being under qualified also occurs in college admissions. Those who are admitted due to diversity

quotas, despite being underqualified, now must compete with other students, possibly more

qualified, who were admitted without the handicap of a diversity quota. This results in those who

receive preferential treatment to be ranked lower in their class and struggle to keep up with their
DOES AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROMOTE GENDER INEQUALITY? 4

peers. In the end, Becker asserts that the focus should be on improving the education of

disadvantaged youth to level the playing field, rather than relying on Affirmative Action policies

later in life (Becker-Posner blog).

Muriel Niederle, Carmit Segal, and Lise Vesterlund argued in their article, “How costly is

diversity? Affirmative action in light of gender differences in competitiveness” (2013), that

Affirmative Action policies increase competition, drawing in a greater pool of women. They

conducted a study and investigated the willingness of men and women to compete, with and

without a diversity quota. They found that with a diversity quota, the participation of women in

the competition increased by about 25%. From their study, they discovered that in competition,

men are more likely to be overconfident, while women exhibit risk adverse behaviors.

Additionally, they included their experiment’s methodology, which helps the reader understand

their study. Since Affirmative Action quotas draw more women to compete, a greater pool of

women will be available for selection, so a greater number of qualified women will be available

(Harvard University).

Currently, the Trump administration is trying to combat Affirmative Action, according to

Nicole Einbiner’s article “How costly is diversity? Affirmative action in light of gender

differences in competitiveness” (2017). She also informed the reader that Affirmative Action,

although has greatly closed the gap between men and women in academia and the work place,

disproportionally benefits white women. Statistics are used to back her point, that more women

earn a bachelors degree than men, along with a massive increase of women being employed in

STEM fields. However, Einbinder believes that Affirmative Action is still needed because of the

vast underrepresentation of women in executive corporate positions. To conclude her article, she

added that many people combat Affirmative Action on the belief that it is institutionalized
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reverse racism and contributes to inequality in America, rather than working towards a solution

(Bustle).

Becker made the argument that Affirmative Action policies result in “less qualified

applicants because of their race, gender, or other characteristics” (Becker, 2010, para. 4),

however, Niederle et al., countered this assertion. They argued that Affirmative Action

encourages minorities and women to apply to jobs and universities that they otherwise thought

they may not have been able to make due to racial or gender prejudice. This claim backed this

with evidence, stating that “31% of women selected the competitive tournament compensation

scheme instead of the non-competitive piece-rate scheme, while 74% of men selected the

competitive scheme” (Niederle et al., 2013, para. 3), which goes to show that even high-

preforming women may be less inclined to be in a competitive environment. However, when

women were guaranteed to have two of the winning spots, their “willingness to compete

increased by 25 percentage points while men’s willingness to compete decreased by 9 percentage

points” (Niederle et al., 2013, para. 4). Through this experiment, they showed that having these

policies exist encouraged women to participate, which results in a greater pool of women to

select from, hence a greater number of qualified women being chosen. An aspect of this

experiment is that it assumes that this will always be the case, however, those who are

underqualified could still be hired. Ultimately, Niederle’s et al. study proved Becker to be wrong.

Although Becker may be correct in certain instances, his generalized argument is shut down by

the statistics presented by Niederle et al., regarding the willingness to compete of women.

Having addressed the subject of qualified women in the work force, Niederle et al. and

Becker each spun this to cater their own argument. Niederle et al. used this to show how

Affirmative Action draws qualified women to apply for jobs, that otherwise may not have.
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Praising the policy, Niederle et al. states that an “increase in qualified candidates may reduce or

even eliminate societal and organizational costs” (2013, para. 1). Conversely, Becker used this

subject to make the case for America being a meritocracy, declaring that “achievement based on

merit produces the most dynamic, innovative, and flexible economy and social structure” (2010,

para. 4). While Becker utilized seemingly sound logic, Niederle et al. debunk his theory with

their study. Ultimately, both sources yearned for more qualified women in the work force, they

just had opposing viewpoints as to whether Affirmative Action helped achieve this goal. It

simply seemed that Becker’s idea of a meritocratic America is only achievable via the increased

competitiveness of qualified women yielded by diversity quotas like Affirmative Action.

When confronted with the issue of the impacts of Affirmative Action policies, Nicole

Einbiner and Muriel Niederle et al. were in agreement. Both articles preached the positive

impacts that diversity quotas have has on women. The findings of Niederle’s et al. study

indicated that “after gender quotas were introduced, women’s propensity to enter into potentially

more lucrative competitive environments increased” (2013, para. 2), which agreed with

Einbinder’s article, which she shows by means of statistics to show the success of Affirmative

Action policies. Einbinder pointed out a change that occurred following the implementation of

Affirmative Action when in 1960 “there were 1.6 males for every female graduating from a

four-year university” (2017, para. 8), however, “by 2003 the numbers reversed: women

outnumbered men in colleges, with 1.35 females for every male” (2017, para. 8). The data that

were presented by Einbinder is subsequently explained by Niederle’s et al. findings.

Following my investigation of the question: “Does Affirmative Action promote gender

inequality?” I do not believe my personal viewpoint has changed on Affirmative Action a whole.

However, I will be arguing in favor of Affirmative Action on my webpage. I feel that there is
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simply more data, regarding gender, that support the policy. However, I believe that only looking

at gender when discussing Affirmative Action is not fair when debating the legitimacy of the

policy. The policy must be considered in its whole, rather than just the aspect of sex-based

discrimination. During my research I discovered that race, when discussing Affirmative Action,

is found exponentially more often than gender and seems more pressing and relevant. This is

especially evident in the current Supreme Court case regarding the discrimination of Asian-

Americans in Harvard’s admissions. Going forward, I should conduct more research on the

relationship between Affirmative Action and gender inequality so I can provide more evidence

and arguments on my web page that support the policy.

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References

Becker, G. (2010). Affirmative Action programs do not promote equal opportunity. Retrieved

from

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010397242/OVIC?u=viva_jmu&sid=OVIC&xid=

a26f2533

Einbinder, N. (2017). Who does Affirmative Action benefit? White women are some of its

biggest opponents. Retrieved from https://www.bustle.com/p/who-does-affirmative-

action-benefit-white-women-are-some-of-its-biggest-opponents-74034

Niederle, M., Segal, C., & Vesterlund, L. (2013). How costly is diversity? Affirmative action in

light of gender differences in competitiveness. Retrieved from

http://gap.hks.harvard.edu/how-costly-diversity-affirmative-action-light-gender-

differences-competitiveness