11 Facts About Affirmative Action

1. Eliminating affirmative action leads to the re-segregation of higher education. When affirmative action was outlawed at the University of Texas in 1995, the number of black students at the UT Law School dropped from 65 in 1996 to 11 in 1997 and Latino student enrollments have been cut in half since the decision.
2. Between 1981 and 2001, the total number of degrees awarded to Native Americans rose by 151.9% because of affirmative action policies.
3. For every dollar earned by men, women earn 74 cents, African American women earn 63 cents and Latina women earn 57 cents.
4. While white men are only 43% of the Fortune 2000 workforce, they hold 95% of the senior management jobs.
5. White men make up 48% of the college-educated workforce, but hold more than 80% of the top jobs in U.S. corporations, law firms, college faculty, government, and news media.
6. Even though women-owned firms represent an estimated 28% of all businesses in the U.S., their firms have obtained a mere 2.9% of the $235.4 billion in federal government contracts awarded in the fiscal year 2002.
7. In 2009, $51,405 was the median annual earnings of white males with a four-year college degree, while white women with the same educational attainment earned $38,533. Black women with equal college credentials earned only $31,824, while Hispanic women with equal college credentials earned only $27,181.
8. About 25% of new jobs will be "technically-oriented," or involving computers, which may create more gender inequality in the workplace because college-educated women earn only 22% of bachelor’s degrees in computer science (down from 37% in 1984) and 27% of doctorate degrees in computer science. Overall, women comprise roughly 20% of IT professionals.
9. Although the number of women of color in Fortune 1000 companies has increased for the past decade, not even half of those women of color (44%) believe that they have an equal chance for promotion within their companies.
10. In 2010, 29,029 individual sex discrimination complaints were filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This number includes over 11,717 sexual harassment claims.
11. While the typical unemployment spell lasted 21.6 weeks in March 2010, Latinos actually experience shorter periods of unemployment, at 18.9 weeks.

Sources:


U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission


US Department of Education


U.S. Census Bureau
National Committee on Pay Equity
Institute for Women's Policy Research
The New York Times