I can distinctly remember when I was in high school, my uncle's voice complaining that they had just hired a woman to the office. My uncle, a Boeing Company career man, told me she would have never been hired had she been a man.
"Why?" I asked, wondering why Boeing would hire an incompetent woman simply because of her gender.
"Oh, they're just filling some quota. She's the best woman they could find," he muttered, implying that there weren't too many to choose from.
Was she the first woman hired to his office because Boeing was trying to fill a quota or because it was finally considering female applicants? Maybe she finally had the opportunity?
I sat defensively next to my uncle, wondering what he would think of my future accomplishments.
Now several years later, affirmative action, the very process that opened up that woman's opportunity, is being challenged. And for some reason that challenge is focused on color and race alone. But women -- even white women -- stand to lose just as much if affirmative action is revoked.
Regardless of what white men standing up crying foul play say, sexism and racism still very much exist, especially when it comes to employment opportunity.
According to a House committee's report on affirmative action on Tuesday, "white women make 70 cents for every dollar a white male earns, African-American males make 74 cents, Latino males 64 cents, African-American females 53 cents, and Latina females 50 cents."
Is this pay scale based on merit?
The report also told congress that "'reverse discrimination' claims are extremely rare. According to a study commissioned by the Department of Labor, of 3,000 employment discrimination cases decided by federal courts between 1990 and 1994, less than 100 involved 'reverse discrimination;' most of these were rejected by the court."
White men are equally protected by anti-discrimination laws.
Is this grounds for revoking affirmative action?
According to that same study, "61 percent of women surveyed said they had little or no likelihood of advancement; and 14 percent of white women and 26 percent of minority women reported losing a job or promotion because of sex or race... and 59 percent said they had personally experienced sexual harassment on the job."
It's hard to believe that the current employment situation is favoring ethnicities and women over white males, looking at statistics.
It's even harder to believe that some women also want to revoke affirmative action, claiming that the talent pool already includes everyone.
Why then, does a woman still make less money for the same amount of work exerted by a white man? And if she is a woman of color, she will be paid even less?
Because everyone is not included in the employment pool, regardless of their talent, skills or education.
And until everyone is included, this country needs an affirmative action program to work toward that goal.
To this day, my uncle still believes that the women who now work in his office were hired simply because of gender so that Boeing could boast some quota. He doesn't use the word "incompetent," but instead stammers that some qualified men were probably overlooked for their positions.
Unfortunately, he isn't alone.