Sex Stereotyping And Affirmative Action

Journal 4
This week we began to discuss hiring and promotion decisions and affirmative action. One of the topics mentioned in hiring and promotion decisions is sex stereotyping. This issue is important to me because I grew up being told that girls do this and boys do that. I have four brothers and one sister that I didn’t really get along with. This led to me spending a lot more time rough housing with my brothers. I would definitely describe myself as a tomboy for the most part. Sometime at work, one of my bosses would make comments on my basic t-shirt and jeans when many girls wore more feminine blouses and stylish clothes. Even though I was within the dress code, I felt uncomfortable in the office. I always hated it when my boss would freak …show more content…
Affirmative action is probably one of the most misunderstood employment practices that we have discussed so far in class. When I first heard of affirmative action, others described as something beneficial only to African Americans. It appeared to be a quota system where you had to hire a certain number of black people in order to keep the government off your back. Some made it sound like the every black person benefiting from affirmative action were unskilled and undeserving. The main purpose of affirmative action was to reverse the long term effects of past policies that may have had discriminatory effect on individuals now protected by employment law. This includes other minorities, women, disabled persons, and even veterans. I did not understand how far affirmative action reached. I already knew that affirmative action was not mandatory for all business but I was confused why some private businesses that did not have contracts with the government where required to have an affirmative plan. While I may have a bias opinion, I believe affirmative action was and still is a good idea. Sometimes we are all a little bias so it may be harder for some to see fault in the way they do things. I believe that affirmative action shines a light on the issues we had in the past and helps to remain on the right path. We must also remember not to cross the line when dealing with affirmative action plans. The main key is that the individual hired must be qualified for the position and the effects of the plan must not cause a long-term disadvantage to another