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From: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.social,net.women,net.flame
Subject: Re: Discrimination and Affirmative Action
Message-ID: <1457@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Jun-85 23:18:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1457
Posted: Thu Jun  6 23:18:56 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Jun-85 03:54:53 EDT
References: <566@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <478@hou2g.UUCP> <445@sftri.UUCP> <159@lzwi.UUCP>
Reply-To: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 34
Xref: watmath net.politics:9291 net.social:604 net.women:5566 net.flame:10331
Summary: Can the government set fair quotas?  I doubt it.

In article <159@lzwi.UUCP> cja@lzwi.UUCP (C.E.JACKSON) writes:
>Before there were quotas, there was EEO, which stipulated
>that people/companies shouldn't discriminate. People continued
>discriminating....
>The government then set up guidelines for ideal minority/female employment. 
>These guidelines were not 51% for women and 11%, but much
>lower & tailored to job type/regions. For instance, if 10% of all
>graduating B.E.E. people were women for a given year, the
>government guidelines suggested that 10% of the new hires in
>EE-related fields be women.
>                                              ... companies
>still failed to meet the guidelines. Many companies failed to
>even come *near* the guidelines.
>Depending on how miserably & flagrantly the companies thumbed
>their noses at the government's guidelines, the government
>retaliated with quotas.

The guidelines you mentioned seem fair at first glance only.  New hires
can be recent graduates, or they can be experienced people who have
left their previous job.  If 10% of recent B. E. E.'s are women, but
fewer than 10% were women in previous years, then the percentage of
*experienced* E. E.'s will be less than 10%.  A company that hires more
than a few experienced E. E.'s would not be able to meet the 10%
guideline by hiring fairly.  And then their failure gets interpreted as
defiance.  Lovely.

If you are reporting what happened accurately, it just goes to show
that the government *can't* be trusted to set fair quotas.
-- 
David Canzi

"When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment
results."
	-- Calvin Coolidge