Diversity vs. Affirmative Action

My buddy, Jessica Carter, wrote a great article on the difference of Diversity and Affirmitive Action. Check it out:

"The concepts of diversity and affirmative action are often confused with each other, but there are substantial differences between the two.

The term “affirmative action” was initially used in Executive Order No. 10925, signed in 1961 by John F. Kennedy.  The Order required that federal contractors “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.”  The Order was later expanded by Lyndon Johnson in 1967, to include women.

Affirmative action is part of a panoply of laws, regulations, and agencies that were designed to remedy socio-historical inequities, and are generally limited to addressing historical discrimination against groups such as women and people of color. It is undergirded by the notion of societal responsibility, so that in the same manner that society perpetuated discrimination against these groups, so too society must be responsible for rectifying its previous discrimination against them. It is important to understand that affirmative action is as much of a legal matter as equal employment opportunity, and that it is rooted in issues related to historical discrimination, not just present-day inequities.

Diversity, on the other hand, is a more inclusive concept and includes people of various religions, marital status, sexual orientation, economic status, and a variety of other different states of being.  It is undergirded by the notion that organizations benefit most when they leverage the abilities of all of their employees, and implicitly positions discrimination as an impediment to organizational profitability and productivity.  Rather than being rooted in the law, diversity is a strategic business imperative, which continues to increase in importance as distinctions among people become more prevalent in the workplace.

Diversity and affirmative action deal with issues related to discrimination, but in different ways.  Affirmative action is a legal redress of historical discrimination, while diversity views discrimination as an impediment to company profitability. They are complementary in function, but different in their origins and goals."

Picture courtesy of  *charminglyBohemian on Flickr.