AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
BY: BRITTANY BOURGOIN
SOC120: INTRO TO ETHICS & SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
INSTRUCTOR ASHLEY BOWMEN
JUNE 9, 2014
Have you ever been discriminated while seeking a job because of your race, sex, religion, etc? There are many people out there in the world who have and there has to be a solution for it. In 1964 the United States created the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. This affirmative action was created to decrease the rising amount of discrimination in the work force. The main reasons that people were being discriminated against was because of race, sex, religion, age, disability, and ethnic origin. In 1978 the supreme court of the United States placed important limits on affirmative action programs. It would prohibit government agencies and institutions from discriminating against or giving favoritism to people based on their race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin. This affirmative action made it to where women, immigrants, and any other individual would be able to gain employment without being turned away due to their age, sex, race, religion, etc. Affirmative action was a great thing for the government to pass because it gives equal rights to everyone when job searching.
Those who follow the ethical theory of utilitarianism would believe that no matter what the problem or consequences are everything should be settled fairly. Both parties the employer and the employee should be meeting in the middle to find common grounds that have nothing to do with race, sex, age, etc. The employer may be someone who doesn’t like having younger people working for them, but they have to take a step back and look at it from the young person’s point of view. The young person doesn’t have much background or experience so they have to find the jobs where they can start their employment career. The employer must realize that everyone has to start from the bottom and work their way up. The utilitarianism will look at the...