Earlier this month, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on
an affirmative action case that once again raised
Job-seekers line up for at the Congressional Black Caucus for the People
Jobs Initiative in Los Angeles. (Jonathan Alcorn – Reuters) the
contentious question of how best to create equal opportunity for all
Americans. Interestingly enough, many on both sides of the debate over
the University of Texas’s use of race in college admissions seemed to
accept that the United States has been steadily growing towards greater
equality over the past generation.
But research we just completed for a new book,
“Documenting Desegregation,”
tells a different story. In many workplaces, the United States has
fallen off the path to equal employment opportunity, with racial and
gender segregation on the rise in many firms and industries.
The results of our research found in
part that there has been a trend toward racial re-segregation among
white men and black men since 2000 and increased segregation since 1970
between black women and white women in American workplaces — so much so
that it has eliminated progress made in the late 1960s. This is not
simply an academic question, but a fundamental problem with American
society. While most of us morally embrace equal opportunity and race and
gender equality, we find that America is still a long way from those
commitments. Only by confronting our shortcomings as a society can we
address them.
To understand current conditions, we need to look at how we got here. Before the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 made
it illegal to discriminate in employment, there was near-total
segregation in private-sector employment. Black men, black women, and
white women almost never held the same job in the same workplace as
white men. When they did share workplaces, women and people of color
were almost always in low-skill jobs with no authority. In sum, good
jobs were reserved for white men.
That changed with the passage of the
Civil Rights Act. Employers immediately began hiring more black workers
and promoting them to jobs once reserved for whites. In the 1960s, black
men made strong gains in skilled blue-collar jobs and black women in
clerical work. This trend continued through the 1970s, with black men,
black women and white women gaining unprecedented access to white-collar
managerial and professional jobs. Between 1964 and 1980, employment
segregation between black men and white men dropped by 15 percent.
But in 1980, progress for black Americans in the workplace came to an abrupt stop.
Following Ronald Reagan’s election, the
government cut funding for federal agencies charged with promoting equal
opportunity. Affirmative action was largely recast as reverse
discrimination and committed employers had to struggle against the
federal government to defend the equal-opportunity principle.
As a result, our research found, racial
employment segregation has hardly budged since 1980. Drawing on the most
comprehensive data available, our recent study contained information
from more than five million private-sector workplaces, collected
annually by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) since
1966. In our research, segregation means the extent to which two groups
work together in the same occupation in the same workplace.
Distressingly, 19 of the 58 industries
we surveyed — nearly one-third of all industries — showed a trend toward
racial re-segregation between white men and black men over the last
dozen years. Transportation services, motion pictures, construction,
securities and commodities brokerages are some of the sectors that
reflect this trend. In addition, re-segregation since 1970 between black
and white women in workplaces has eliminated progress made in the late
1960s.
Transportation services, railroads,
publishing and many low-wage manufacturing industries show increased
segregation between black and white women. Unfortunately, increased
access to private sector managerial jobs for black men and black women
came to a grinding halt more than 30 years ago as well. Meanwhile, black
women’s employment segregation from white women has actually grown
somewhat, as white women made continued gains into traditionally white
male jobs.
Ironically, the Civil Rights Act
instructed the newly formed EEOC to monitor progress toward ending race
and gender discrimination and equal opportunity in employment. The EEOC
has never had the funding or resources to fulfill this mission. Our book
does just that, documenting the progress and regress of private sector
firms toward equal opportunity in employment.
That’s not to say that there hasn’t been
any progress since 1980. Overall, white men are more likely to work in
the same job in the same workplace with black women, black men and white
women than they were in 1966. And women and minorities have made
significant gains in management jobs in social services.
But it’s notable that the progress we
have made has not been fueled by federal intervention. In fact, our
research shows, federal contractors have shown a pattern of
re-segregation and an increased preference for white men since 1980.
Many industries and firms show patterns of increased racial segregation
and lower access of black men and women to good jobs.
Where has there been progress? In
general, African Americans tend to do better in workplaces that use
formal credentials to make hiring decisions. Minorities and white women
have made the most progress in professional jobs. These occupations
require specific educational credentials to be considered for
employment. African Americans also progress in those relatively rare
large, private-sector firms that monitor their managers diversity track
record.
In other words, merit-based selection
actually leads to affirmative action in employment. A focus on merit
coupled with managerial accountability helps control racial biases in
decision-making. Without clear hiring criteria and accountability, bias
tends to flourish.
To level the playing field for these merit-based practices and promote
diversity in jobs that require college degrees, affirmative action in
college admissions is crucial. Diversity in college enrollments and
completion leads to diversity in employment even in non-managerial jobs.
Many responsible employers recognize this dynamic and have petitioned the Supreme Court in
Fisher v. University of Texas to leave affirmative action in college admissions untouched.
As our findings make clear, we’ve got to
do more to get back on the path to equal opportunity in America’s
workplaces. Government regulators have a role to play in these efforts,
especially in the absence of mass movements pushing for change. The
government could use the data we deployed in our research to make clear
which cities, industries and even firms have the most troubling
employment records.
If the worst offenders must face
aggressive legal or regulatory action and the threat of bad press,
companies will likely renew their commitment to equal opportunity both
to avoid negative publicity and to successfully recruit productive and
diverse labor forces.
Currently, corporations are largely
protected from public scrutiny when it comes to equal employment
opportunity. But if campaign contributions, pollution discharges, stock
market activity and even balance sheets of publicly traded companies are
all public record, shouldn’t employment practices be as well?
Pregnant women face numerous challenges at work – discrimination in hiringand the absence of federally mandated maternity leave,
to name two. However, one of the issues they deal with gets much less
press than the others: pregnancy-related sick leave. A recent study
suggests that flexible schedules might reduce the amount of time
pregnant women take off due to pregnancy-related illness.
