Equal opportunity
Encyclopedia
Equal opportunity, or equality of opportunity, is a controversial political concept; and an important informal decision-making standard without a precise definition involving fair
choices within the public sphere
. While it generally describes “open and fair competition” with equal chances for achieving sought–after jobs or positions as well as an absence of discrimination
, the concept is elusive with a “wide range of meanings.” It is hard to measure, and implementation poses problems as well as disagreements about what to do. It is being applied to increasingly wider areas beyond employment including lending, housing, voting rights, and elsewhere.
The essence of the equality of opportunity is a stipulation that all people should be treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers or prejudices or preferences, except when particular “distinctions can be explicitly justified.” The aim is that important jobs should go to those “the most qualified”––persons most likely to perform ably in a given task––and not to go to persons for arbitrary or irrelevant reasons, such as circumstances of birth, upbringing, friendship ties to whoever is in power, religion, sex, ethnicity, race, caste, or “involuntary personal attributes” such as disability, age, or sexual preferences. Chances for advancement are open to everybody interested such that they have “an equal chance to compete within the framework of goals and the structure of rules established.” The idea is to remove arbitrariness from the selection process and base it on some “pre-agreed basis of fairness
, with the assessment process being related to the type of position,” and emphasizing procedural and legal means. It is opposed to nepotism
and plays a role in whether a social structure is seen as legitimate. People with differing political viewpoints see it differently. The concept is debated in different academic fields such as political philosophy, sociology and psychology.
In the classical sense, the equality of opportunity is closely aligned with the concept of equality before the law
and ideas of meritocracy
.
Generally the terms “the equality of opportunity” and “equal opportunity” are interchangeable, with occasional slight variations: “the equality of opportunity” has more of a sense of being an abstract political concept, while “equal opportunity” is sometimes used as an adjective, usually in the context of employment regulations, to identify an employer, a hiring approach, or law. Equal opportunity provisions have been written into regulations and have been debated in courtrooms. It is sometimes conceived as a legal right
against discrimination
. It is an ideal which has become increasingly "widespread" in Western nations during the last several centuries and is intertwined with social mobility
, most often with upward mobility rags to riches
stories:
, the concept assumes that society is stratified with a diverse range of roles, some of which are more desirable than others. And the benefit of equality of opportunity is to bring fairness to the selection process for the coveted roles in corporations, associations
, nonprofits, universities, and elsewhere. There is no "formal linking" between equality of opportunity and political structure, according to one view, in the sense that there can be equality of opportunity in democracies
, autocracies
, and in communist nations
, although it is primarily associated with a competitive market economy and embedded within the legal frameworks of democratic societies. People with different political perspectives see equality of opportunity differently: liberals disagree about which conditions are needed to ensure it; many "old-style" conservatives see inequality and hierarchy in general as a good thing out of a respect for tradition. It can apply to a specific hiring decision, or to all hiring decisions by a specific company, or rules governing hiring decisions for an entire nation. The scope of equal opportunity has expanded to cover more than issues regarding the rights of minority groups, but covers practices regarding "recruitment, hiring, training, layoffs, discharge, recall, promotions, responsibility, wages, sick leave, vacation, overtime, insurance, retirement, pensions, and various other benefits." The concept has been applied to numerous aspects of public life, including accessibility of polling stations, care provided to HIV
patients, whether men and women have equal opportunities to travel on a spaceship, bilingual education
, skin color of models in Brazil
, television time for political candidates, army promotions, admittance to universities, and ethnicity in the United States
. The term is interrelated with and often contrasted with other conceptions of equality such as equality of outcome
and equality of autonomy
.
People generally think of equality of opportunity in terms of the rules of a certain society and in situations where there is a certain job to be filled. A call goes out for people to apply for this job. All persons who might be interested in this job learn about it, that is, they are informed in some way that the position is up for grabs. Then, they indicate that they want to apply for this position––all eligible people should have a chance to compete for this job. At this point the evaluation begins––this is the official starting point. The competition is often thought of using the metaphor
of a running race. Next, there is a formal process to determine which applicant gets the job, and this selection process should be related to what the job is about, that is, the evaluation should consider the "qualifications deemed relevant to successful performance in a position or program." For example, if a firefighter position is open, then applicants may have to demonstrate their ability to carry a heavy sack up a flight of stairs; if a professor's post is open, then applicants may have to show that they have the requisite degrees. But the process of assigning "individuals to places in the social hierarchy is determined by some form of competitive process." The selection process should not be based on some arbitrary or irrelevant criterion such as religion
or skin color, but rather should emphasize "individual abilities and ambition" or, as Martin Luther King, Jr.
said in his famous I Have a Dream
speech that he hoped his four children would be judged not by the "color of their skin but by the content of their character." Then, from this "starting gate" position, regardless of the particular view of equality of opportunity, applicants are seen as essentially accountable for the results from that point onwards––whether they succeed or fail is up to their own ability at this point. And one applicant gets the job. In a usual conception, equality of opportunity logically implies differing results afterwards, so there is support for the view that equality of opportunity and equality of outcome
are philosophically incompatible.
The formal approach is seen as a somewhat basic "no frills" or "narrow" approach to equality of opportunity, a minimal standard of sorts, limited to the public sphere
as opposed to private areas such as the family
, marriage
, or religion
. What is considered "fair" and "unfair" is spelled out in advance. An expression of this version appeared in The New York Times:
This sense was also expressed by economist
s Milton
and Rose
Friedman in their 1980 book Free to Choose
. The Friedmans explained that equality of opportunity was "not to be interpreted literally" since some children are born blind while others are born sighted, but that "its real meaning is ... a career open to the talents." This means that there should be "no arbitrary obstacles" blocking a person from realizing their ambitions, and that "Not birth, nationality, color, religion, sex, nor any other irrelevant characteristic should determine the opportunities that are open to a person -- only his abilities."
A somewhat different view was expressed by John Roemer
who used the term nondiscrimination principle to mean that "all individuals who possess the attributes relevant for the performance of the duties of the position in question be included in the pool of eligible candidates, and that an individual's possible occupancy of the position be judged only with respect to those relevant attributes." Matt Cavanagh
argued that race and sex shouldn't matter when getting a job, but that the sense of equality of opportunity should not extend much further than preventing straightforward discrimination.
It is a relatively straightforward task for legislators to ban blatant efforts to favor one group over another and encourage equality of opportunity as a result. Japan
banned gender-specific job descriptions in advertising as well as sexual discrimination in employment as well as other practices deemed unfair, although a subsequent report suggested that the law was having minimal effect in securing Japanese women high positions in management. In the United States
, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
sued a private test preparation
firm, Kaplan
, for unfairly using credit histories to discriminate against African American
s in terms of hiring decisions. According to one analysis, it is possible to imagine a democracy which meets the formal criteria (1 through 3) but which still favors wealthy candidates who are selected in free and fair elections.
In the substantive approach, the starting point before the race begins is unfair, since people have had differing experiences before even approaching the competition. The substantive approach examines the applicants themselves before applying for a position, and judges whether they have equal abilities or talents, and if not, then it suggests that authorities (usually the government) take steps to make applicants more equal before they get to the point where they compete for a position, and fixing the before–the–starting point issues has sometimes been described as working towards "fair access to qualifications." It seeks to remedy inequalities perhaps because of an "unfair disadvantage" based sometimes on "prejudice in the past." According to John Hills, children of wealthy and well-connected parents usually have a decisive advantage over other types of children, and he notes that "advantage and disadvantage reinforce themselves over the life cycle, and often on to the next generation" so that successful parents pass along their wealth and education to succeeding generations, making it difficult for others to climb up a social ladder. But so-called positive action efforts to bring an underprivileged person up to speed before a competition begins are limited to the period of time before the evaluation begins; at that point, the "final selection for posts must be made according to the principle the best person for the job," that is, a less qualified applicant should not be chosen over a more qualified applicant. And there are nuanced views too: one position suggested that the unequal results following a competition were unjust if caused by bad luck but just if chosen by the individual, and that weighing matters such as personal responsibility was important; this variant of the substantive model has sometimes been called luck egalitarianism. Still, regardless of the nuances, the overall idea is to give children from less fortunate backgrounds more of a chance, or to achieve at the beginning what some theorists call equality of condition. Writer Ha-Joon Chang expressed this view:
In a sense, substantive equality of opportunity moves the "starting point" further back in time. Sometimes it entails the use of affirmative action
policies to help all contenders become equal before they get to the starting point, perhaps with greater training, or sometimes redistributing resources via coercion
or taxation to make the contenders more equal. It holds that all who have a "genuine opportunity to become qualified" be given a chance to do so. And it is sometimes based on a recognition that unfairness exists, hindering social mobility
, combined with a sense that the unfairness should not exist or should be lessened in some manner. One example postulated was that a warrior society could provide special nutritional supplements to poor children, offer scholarships to military academies, and dispatch "warrior skills coaches" to every village as a way to make opportunity substantively more fair. The idea is give every ambitious and talented youth a chance to compete for prize positions regardless of their circumstances of birth.
The substantive position was advocated by Bhikhu Parekh in 2000 in Rethinking Multiculturalism who wrote that "all citizens should enjoy equal opportunities to acquire the capacities and skills needed to function in society and to pursue their self-chosen goals equally effectively" and that "equalising measures are justified on grounds of justice as well as social integration and harmony." Parekh argued that equal opportunities included so-called cultural rights which are "ensured by the politics of recognition."
Affirmative action
programs usually fall under the substantive category. The idea is to help disadvantaged groups get back to a normal starting position after a long period of discrimination
. The programs involve government action, sometimes with resources being transferred from an advantaged group to a disadvantaged one, and these programs have been justified on the grounds that imposing quota
s counter-balances the past discrimination as well as being a "compelling state interest" in diversity in society. For example, there was a case in Sao Paulo in Brazil
of a quota imposed on the São Paulo Fashion Week
to require that "at least 10 percent of the models to be black or indigenous", as a coercive measure to counteract a "longstanding bias towards white models." It does not have to be accomplished via government action; for example, in the 1980s in the United States, President Reagan
dismantled parts of affirmative action, but one report in the Chicago Tribune
suggested that companies remained committed to the principle of equal opportunity regardless of government requirements. In another instance, upper-middle class students taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test in the United States performed better, since they had had more "economic and educational resources to prepare for these test than others." The test, itself, was seen as fair in a formal sense, but the overall result was seen as nevertheless unfair. In India
, the Indian Institutes of Technology
found that to achieve substantive equality of opportunity, the school had to reserve 22.5 percent of seats for applicants from "historically disadvantaged schedule castes and tribes." Elite universities in France
began a special "entrance program" to help applicants from "impoverished suburbs."
offered this variant of substantive equality of opportunity, and explained that it happens when individuals with the same "native talent and the same ambition" have the same prospects of success in competitions. Gordon Marshall offers a similar view with the words "positions are to be open to all under conditions in which persons of similar abilities have equal access to office." An example was given: If two persons X and Y have identical talent but X is from a poor family while Y is from a rich one, then equality of fair opportunity is in effect when both X and Y have the same chance of winning the job. It suggests the ideal society is "classless" without a social hierarchy being passed from generation to generation, although parents can still pass along advantages to their children by genetics
and socialization
skills. One view suggests that this approach might advocate "invasive interference in family life." Marshall posed this question:
Economist Paul Krugman
agrees mostly with the Rawlsian approach in that he would like to "create the society each of us would want if we didn’t know in advance who we’d be. Krugman elaborated: "If you admit that life is unfair, and that there’s only so much you can do about that at the starting line, then you can try to ameliorate the consequences of that unfairness."
Some theorists have posed a level playing field conception of equality of opportunity, similar in many respects to the substantive principle, (although it has been used in different contexts to describe formal equality of opportunity) and it is a core idea regarding the subject of distributive justice
espoused by John Roemer
and Ronald Dworkin
and others. Like the substantive notion, the level playing field conception goes farther than the usual formal approach. The idea is that initial "unchosen inequalities"––prior circumstances over which an individual had no control but which impact his or her success in a given competition for a particular post––these unchosen inequalities should be eliminated as much as possible, according to this conception. According to Roemer, society should "do what it can to level the playing field so that all those with relevant potential will eventually be admissible to pools of candidates competing for positions. Afterwards, when an individual competes for a specific post, he or she might make specific choices which cause future inequalities––and these inequalities are deemed acceptable because of the previous presumption of fairness. And this system helps undergird the legitimacy of a society's divvying up of roles as a result in the sense that it makes certain achieved inequalities "morally acceptable," according to persons who advocate this approach. This conception has been contrasted to the substantive version among some thinkers, and it usually has ramifications for how society treats young persons in such areas as education
and socialization
and health care
. But this conception has been criticized as well. Rawls postulated the difference principle
which argued that "inequalities are justified only if needed to improve the lot of the worst off, for example by giving the talented an incentive to create wealth."
which describes an administrative system which rewards such factors as individual intelligence
, credentials, education
, morality
, knowledge
or other criteria believed to confer merit. Equality of opportunity is often seen as a major aspect of a meritocracy. One view was that equality of opportunity was more focused on what happens before the race begins, while meritocracy is more focused on fairness at the competition stage.
, according to some views; one report in Al Jazeera
suggested that Egypt
, Tunisia
, and other Middle East
ern nations were stagnating economically in part because of a dearth of equal opportunity.. Equal opportunity can confict with the ideas of a meritocracy
when individual differences in human abilities are thought to be largely genetic
and inherited. Ironing out these conflicts usually leads to great disputes.
A government policy that requires equal treatment can pose problems for lawmakers. A requirement for government to provide equal health care services for all citizens can be prohibitively expensive. If government seeks equality of opportunity for citizens to get health care by rationing services using a maximization model to try to save money, new difficulties might emerge. For example, trying to ration health care by maximizing the "quality-adjusted years of life" might steer monies away from disabled persons even though they may be more deserving, according to one analysis. In another instance, BBC News questioned whether it was wise to ask female army recruits to undergo the same strenuous tests as their male counterparts, since many women were being injured as a result.
Age discimination can present vexing challenges for policymakers trying to implement equal opportunity. According to several studies, attempts to be equally fair to both a young and an old person are problematic because the older person has presumably fewer years left to live, and it may make more sense for a society to invest greater resources in a younger person's health. Treating both persons equally, while following the letter of the equality of opportunity, seems unfair from a different perspective.
Another difficulty is that it is hard for a society to bring substantive equality of opportunity to every type of position or industry. If a nation focuses efforts on some industries or positions, then people with other talents may be left out. For example, in an example in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
, a warrior society might provide equal opportunity for all kinds of people to achieve military success through fair competition, but people with non-military skills such as farming may be left out.
Lawmakers have run into problems trying to implement equality of opportunity. In 2010 in Britain
, a legal requirement "forcing public bodies to try to reduce inequalities caused by class disadvantage" was scrapped after much debate, and replaced by a hope that organizations would try to focus more on "fairness" than "equality"; fairness is generally seen as a much vaguer concept than equality, but easier for politicians to manage if they are seeking to avoid fractious debate. In New York City
, mayor Ed Koch
tried to find ways to maintain the "principle of equal treatment" while arguing against more substantive and abrupt transfer payments called minority set-asides.
Many countries have specific bodies tasked with looking at equality of opportunity issues; in the United States
, for example, it is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
; in Britain
, there is the Equality of opportunity committee as well as the Equality and Human Rights Commission; in Canada
, the Royal Commission on the Status of Women
has "equal opportunity as its precept." In China
, the Equal Opportunities Commission
handles matters regarding ethnic prejudice. In addition, there have been political movements pushing for equal treatment, such as the Women's Equal Opportunity League which in the early decades of the twentieth century, pushed for fair treatment by employers in the U.S. One of the group's members explained:
It is difficult to prove unequal treatment although statistical analysis can provide indications of problems, but it is subject to conflicts over interpretation and methodological issues. For example, a study in 2007 by the University of Washington
examined its own treatment of women. Researchers collected statistics about female participation in numerous aspects of university life, including percentages of women with full professorships (23%), enrollment in programs such as nursing(90%) and engineering (18%). There is wide variation in how these statistics might be interpreted. For example, the 23% figure for women with full professorships could be compared to the total population of women (presumably 50%) perhaps using census data, or it might be compared to the percentage of women with full professorships at competing universities. It might be used in an analysis of how many women applied for the position of full professor compared to how many women attained this position. Further, the 23% figure could be used as a benchmark or baseline figure as part of an ongoing longitudinal analysis to be compared with future surveys to track progress over time. In addition, the strength of the conclusions is subject to statistical issues such as sample size and bias
. For reasons such as these, there is considerable difficulty with most forms of statistical interpretation.
Statistical analysis of equal opportunity has been done using sophisticated examinations of computer databases. An analysis in 2011 by University of Chicago
researcher Stefano Allesina examined 61,000 names of Italian
professors by looking at the "frequency of last names", doing one million random drawings, and he suggested that Italian academia was characterized by violations of equal opportunity practices as a result of these investigations. The last names of Italian professors tended to be similar more often than predicted by random chance. The study suggested that newspaper accounts showing that "nine relatives from three generations of a single family (were) on the economics faculty" at the University of Bari
were not abberations, but indicated a pattern of nepotism
throughout Italian academia.
There is support for the view that often equality of opportunity is measured by the criteria of equality of outcome
, although with difficulty. In one example, an analysis of relative equality of opportunity was done based on outcomes, such as a case to see whether hiring decisions were fair regarding men versus women; the analysis was done using statistics based on average salaries for different groups. In another instance, a cross-sectional statistical analysis was conducted to see whether social class
affected participation in the United States Armed Forces
during the Vietnam War
; a report in Time Magazine by MIT
suggested that soldiers came from a variety of social classes, and that the principle of equal opportunity had worked, possibly because soldiers had been chosen by a lottery
process for conscription
.
Adam Smith
as a basic economic precept. There has been research suggesting that "competitive markets will tend to drive out such discrimination" since employers or institutions which hire based on arbitrary criteria will be weaker as a result, and not perform as well as firms which embrace equality of opportunity. Firms competing for overseas contracts have sometimes argued in the press for equal chances during the bidding process, such as when American oil corporations wanted equal shots at developing oil fields in Sumatra
; and firms, seeing how fairness is beneficial while competing for contracts, can apply the lesson to other areas such as internal hiring and promotion decisions. A report in USA Today
suggested that the goal of equal opportunity was "being achieved throughout most of the business and government labor markets because major employers pay based on potential and actual productivity." Fair opportunity practices include measures taken by an organization to ensure fairness in the employment process. A basic definition of equality is the idea of equal treatment and respect. In job advertisements and descriptions, the fact that the employer is an equal opportunity employer is sometimes indicated by the abbreviations EOE or MFDV which stands for Minority, Female, Disabled, Veteran. Analyst Ross Douthat in The New York Times
suggested that equality of opportunity depends to a great extent on a rising economy
which brings new chances for upward mobility, and he suggested that greater equality of opportunity is more easily achieved during "times of plenty." Efforts to achieve equal opportunity can rise and recede, sometimes as a result of economic conditions or political choices.
broke down during the late Middle Ages
and new structures emerged during the Renaissance
. Monarchies
were replaced by democracies
; kings were replaced by parliaments and congresses. Slavery
was abolished generally. The new entity of the nation state emerged with highly specialized parts, including corporation
s, laws, and new ideas about citizenship
, and values about individual rights
found expression in constitutions, laws, and statutes.
In the United States
, one legal analyst suggested that the real beginning of the modern sense of equal opportunity was in the Fourteenth Amendment
which provided "equal protection under the law." The amendment did not mention equal opportunity directly, but it helped undergird a series of later rulings which dealt with legal struggles, particularly by African American
s and later women, seeking greater political and economic power in the growing republic. In 1933, a congressional "Unemployment Relief Act" forbade discrimination
"on the basis of race, color, or creed". The Supreme Court's
1954 Brown v Board of Education decision furthered government initiatives to end discrimination. In 1961, President
Kennedy
signed Executive Order 10925
which enabled a presidential committee on equal opportunity, which was soon followed by President Johnson's Executive Order 11246
. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
became the legal underpinning of equal opportunity in employment. Businesses and other organizations learned to comply with the rulings by specifying fair hiring and promoting practices and posting these policy notices on bulletin boards, employee handbooks, and manuals as well as training sessions and films. Courts dealt with issues about equal opportunity, such as the 1989 Wards Cove decision, the Supreme Court ruled that statistical evidence, by itself, was insufficient to prove racial discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
was established, sometimes reviewing charges of discrimination cases which numbered in the tens of thousands annually during the 1990s. Some law practices specialized in employment law. Conflict between formal and substantive approaches manifested itself in backlashes, sometimes described as reverse discrimination
, such as the Bakke
case when a white male applicant to medical school sued on the basis of being denied admission because of a quota system preferring minority applicants. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act
prohibited discrimination against disabled persons, including cases of equal opportunity. In 2008, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
prevents employers from using genetic information when hiring
, firing
, or promoting
employees.
fault even formal equality of opportunity on the grounds that it "legitimates inequalities of wealth and income." John William Gardner suggested several views: (1) that inequalities will always exist regardless of trying to erase them (2) that bringing everyone "fairly to the starting line" without dealing with the "destructive competitiveness that follows" (3) any equalities achieved will entail future inequalities. Substantive equality of opportunity has led to concerns that efforts to improve fairness "ultimately collapses into the different one of equality of outcome
or condition."
There is speculation that since equality of opportunity is only one of sometimes competing "justice norms", there is a risk that following equality of opportunity too strictly might cause problems in other areas. A hypothetical example was suggested: suppose wealthier people gave excessive amounts of campaign contributions; suppose, further, that these contributions resulted in better regulations; then, laws limiting such contributions on the basis of equal opportunity for all political participants may have the unintended long term consequence of making political decision-making lackluster and possibly hurting the groups that it was trying to protect. Philosopher John Kekes
makes a similar point in his book The Art of Politics: The New Betrayal of America and How to Resist It in which he suggests that there is a danger to elevating any one particular political good––including equality of opportunity––without balancing competing goods such as justice, property rights, and others. Kekes advocated having a balanced perspective, including a continuing dialog between cautionary elements and reform elements. A similar view was expressed in The Economist
:
Economist
Paul Krugman
sees equality of opportunity as a "non-Utopian compromise" which works and is a "pretty decent arrangement" which varies from country to country. But there are differing views, such as by Matt Cavanagh
, who criticised equality of opportunity in his 2002 book Against Equality of Opportunity
. Cavanath favored a limited approach of opposing specific kinds of discrimination as steps to help people get greater control over their lives.
Conservative
thinker Dinesh D'Souza
criticized equality of opportunity on the basis that "it is an ideal that cannot and should not be realized through the actions of the government" and added that "for the state to enforce equal opportunity would be to contravene the true meaning of the Declaration
and to subvert the principle of a free society." D'Souza described how his parenting undermined equality of opportunity:
D'Souza argued that it was wrong for government to try to bring his daughter down, or to force him to raise up other people's children. But a counterargument is that there is a benefit to everybody, including D'Souza's daughter, to have a society with less anxiety about downward mobility, less class resentment, and less possible violence.
An argument similar to D'Souza's was raised by Nozick in Anarchy, State, and Utopia
, who wrote that the only way to achieve equality of opportunity was "directly worsening the situations of those more favored with opportunity, or by improving the situation of those less well-favored." Nozick gave an argument of two suitors competing to marry one "fair lady": X was plain; Y was better looking and more intelligent. If Y didn't exist, then "fair lady" would have married X; but Y exists, so she marries Y. Nozick asks: Does suitor X have a legitimate complaint against Y on the basis of unfairness since Y didn't earn his good looks or intelligence? Nozick suggests that there is no grounds for complaint. Nozick argued against equality of opportunity on the grounds that it violates the rights
of property, since the equal opportunity maxim interferes with an owner's right to do what he or she pleases with a property. Property rights were a major component of the philosophy of John Locke
, and are sometimes referred to as Lockean rights. The sense of the argument is along these lines: equal opportunity rules regarding, say, a hiring decision within a factory, made to bring about greater fairness, violate a factory owner's rights to run the factory as he or she sees best; it has been argued that a factory owner's right to property encompasses all decision-making within the factory as being part of those property rights. That some people's "natural assets" were unearned is irrelevant to the equation, according to Nozick, and he argued that people are nevertheless entitled to enjoy these assets and other things freely given by others.
Friedrich Hayek
felt that luck was too much of a variable in economics, such that one can not devise a system with any kind of fairness when many market outcomes are unintended. By sheer chance or random circumstances, a person may become wealthy just by being in the right place and time, and Hayek argued that it is impossible to devise a system to make opportunities equal without knowing how such interactions may play out. Hayek saw not only equality of opportunity but all of social justice
as a "mirage".
Some conceptions of equality of opportunity, particularly the substantive and level playing field variants, have been criticized on the basis that they make assumptions to the effect that people have similar genetic makeups. Other critics have suggested that social justice
is more complex than mere equality of opportunity. Robert Nozick made the point that what happens in society can not always be reduced to competitions for a coveted position; in 1974, Nozick wrote that "life is not a race in which we all compete for a prize which someone has established" and that there is "no unified race" and there is not some one person "judging swiftness."
Fairness
Fairness or being fair may refer to:* Equity , a legal principle allowing for the use of discretion and fairness when applying justice* Social justice, equality and solidarity in a society...
choices within the public sphere
Public sphere
The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action...
. While it generally describes “open and fair competition” with equal chances for achieving sought–after jobs or positions as well as an absence of discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
, the concept is elusive with a “wide range of meanings.” It is hard to measure, and implementation poses problems as well as disagreements about what to do. It is being applied to increasingly wider areas beyond employment including lending, housing, voting rights, and elsewhere.
The essence of the equality of opportunity is a stipulation that all people should be treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers or prejudices or preferences, except when particular “distinctions can be explicitly justified.” The aim is that important jobs should go to those “the most qualified”––persons most likely to perform ably in a given task––and not to go to persons for arbitrary or irrelevant reasons, such as circumstances of birth, upbringing, friendship ties to whoever is in power, religion, sex, ethnicity, race, caste, or “involuntary personal attributes” such as disability, age, or sexual preferences. Chances for advancement are open to everybody interested such that they have “an equal chance to compete within the framework of goals and the structure of rules established.” The idea is to remove arbitrariness from the selection process and base it on some “pre-agreed basis of fairness
Fairness
Fairness or being fair may refer to:* Equity , a legal principle allowing for the use of discretion and fairness when applying justice* Social justice, equality and solidarity in a society...
, with the assessment process being related to the type of position,” and emphasizing procedural and legal means. It is opposed to nepotism
Nepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
and plays a role in whether a social structure is seen as legitimate. People with differing political viewpoints see it differently. The concept is debated in different academic fields such as political philosophy, sociology and psychology.
In the classical sense, the equality of opportunity is closely aligned with the concept of equality before the law
Equality before the law
Equality before the law or equality under the law or legal egalitarianism is the principle under which each individual is subject to the same laws....
and ideas of meritocracy
Meritocracy
Meritocracy, in the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or...
.
Generally the terms “the equality of opportunity” and “equal opportunity” are interchangeable, with occasional slight variations: “the equality of opportunity” has more of a sense of being an abstract political concept, while “equal opportunity” is sometimes used as an adjective, usually in the context of employment regulations, to identify an employer, a hiring approach, or law. Equal opportunity provisions have been written into regulations and have been debated in courtrooms. It is sometimes conceived as a legal right
Rights
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory...
against discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
. It is an ideal which has become increasingly "widespread" in Western nations during the last several centuries and is intertwined with social mobility
Mobility
Mobility may refer to:* Mobility * "Mobiliy" , a song by Moby* Mobility * Mobility , the ability of military units or weapon systems to move to an objective-See also:* Academic mobility* Apprentices mobility...
, most often with upward mobility rags to riches
Rags to riches
Rags to Riches refers to any situation in which a person rises from poverty to wealth, or sometimes from obscurity to fame. This is a common archetype in literature and popular culture ....
stories:
Outlines of the concept
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a freely-accessible online encyclopedia of philosophy maintained by Stanford University. Each entry is written and maintained by an expert in the field, including professors from over 65 academic institutions worldwide...
, the concept assumes that society is stratified with a diverse range of roles, some of which are more desirable than others. And the benefit of equality of opportunity is to bring fairness to the selection process for the coveted roles in corporations, associations
Voluntary association
A voluntary association or union is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement as volunteers to form a body to accomplish a purpose.Strictly speaking, in many jurisdictions no formalities are necessary to start an association...
, nonprofits, universities, and elsewhere. There is no "formal linking" between equality of opportunity and political structure, according to one view, in the sense that there can be equality of opportunity in democracies
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
, autocracies
Autocracy
An autocracy is a form of government in which one person is the supreme power within the state. It is derived from the Greek : and , and may be translated as "one who rules by himself". It is distinct from oligarchy and democracy...
, and in communist nations
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, although it is primarily associated with a competitive market economy and embedded within the legal frameworks of democratic societies. People with different political perspectives see equality of opportunity differently: liberals disagree about which conditions are needed to ensure it; many "old-style" conservatives see inequality and hierarchy in general as a good thing out of a respect for tradition. It can apply to a specific hiring decision, or to all hiring decisions by a specific company, or rules governing hiring decisions for an entire nation. The scope of equal opportunity has expanded to cover more than issues regarding the rights of minority groups, but covers practices regarding "recruitment, hiring, training, layoffs, discharge, recall, promotions, responsibility, wages, sick leave, vacation, overtime, insurance, retirement, pensions, and various other benefits." The concept has been applied to numerous aspects of public life, including accessibility of polling stations, care provided to HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
patients, whether men and women have equal opportunities to travel on a spaceship, bilingual education
Bilingual education
Bilingual education involves teaching academic content in two languages, in a native and secondary language with varying amounts of each language used in accordance with the program model.-Bilingual education program models:...
, skin color of models in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, television time for political candidates, army promotions, admittance to universities, and ethnicity in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The term is interrelated with and often contrasted with other conceptions of equality such as equality of outcome
Equality of outcome
Equality of outcome, equality of condition, or equality of results is a controversial political concept. Although it is not always clearly defined, it is usually taken to describe a state in which people have approximately the same material wealth or, more generally, in which the general conditions...
and equality of autonomy
Equality of autonomy
Equality of autonomy is a concept from political philosophy advocated by Amartya Sen which suggests that societies should strive to help individuals have an equal chance at autonomy or empowerment...
.
Basic model
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
of a running race. Next, there is a formal process to determine which applicant gets the job, and this selection process should be related to what the job is about, that is, the evaluation should consider the "qualifications deemed relevant to successful performance in a position or program." For example, if a firefighter position is open, then applicants may have to demonstrate their ability to carry a heavy sack up a flight of stairs; if a professor's post is open, then applicants may have to show that they have the requisite degrees. But the process of assigning "individuals to places in the social hierarchy is determined by some form of competitive process." The selection process should not be based on some arbitrary or irrelevant criterion such as religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
or skin color, but rather should emphasize "individual abilities and ambition" or, as Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
said in his famous I Have a Dream
I Have a Dream
"I Have a Dream" is a 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on August 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination...
speech that he hoped his four children would be judged not by the "color of their skin but by the content of their character." Then, from this "starting gate" position, regardless of the particular view of equality of opportunity, applicants are seen as essentially accountable for the results from that point onwards––whether they succeed or fail is up to their own ability at this point. And one applicant gets the job. In a usual conception, equality of opportunity logically implies differing results afterwards, so there is support for the view that equality of opportunity and equality of outcome
Equality of outcome
Equality of outcome, equality of condition, or equality of results is a controversial political concept. Although it is not always clearly defined, it is usually taken to describe a state in which people have approximately the same material wealth or, more generally, in which the general conditions...
are philosophically incompatible.
Different types
There are differing senses of what equality of opportunity is and related notions, with slight variations and nuances. What is common to most of the conceptions is that the individual is accountable when the race begins, when the examination or test or review begins, but senses of equality of opportunity differ most essentially on when the race should begin.Formal equality of opportunity
Formal equality of opportunity, sometimes referred to as the nondiscrimination principle or described as the absence of direct discrimination, or described in the narrow sense as equality of access, is characterized by:- Open call. Positions bringing superior advantages should be open to all applicants; job openings should be publicized in advance giving applicants a "reasonable opportunity" to apply. Further, all applications should be accepted.
- Fair judging. Applications should be judged on their merits with procedures designed to identify those best–qualified. The evaluation of the applicant should be in accord with the duties of the position; for example, for the job opening of choir director, the evaluation may judge applicants based on musical knowledge rather than some arbitrary criterion such as hair color.
- An application is chosen. The applicant judged as "most qualified" is offered the position while others are not. There is agreement that the result of the process is again unequal, in the sense that one person has the position while another does not, but that this outcome is deemed fair on procedural grounds.
The formal approach is seen as a somewhat basic "no frills" or "narrow" approach to equality of opportunity, a minimal standard of sorts, limited to the public sphere
Public sphere
The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action...
as opposed to private areas such as the family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
, marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, or religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
. What is considered "fair" and "unfair" is spelled out in advance. An expression of this version appeared in The New York Times:
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
s Milton
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...
and Rose
Rose Friedman
Rose Director Friedman , also known as Rose D. Friedman and Rose Director was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. She was the wife of Milton Friedman , the winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics, and sister of Aaron Director...
Friedman in their 1980 book Free to Choose
Free to Choose
Free to Choose is a book and a ten-part television series broadcast on public television by economists Milton and Rose D...
. The Friedmans explained that equality of opportunity was "not to be interpreted literally" since some children are born blind while others are born sighted, but that "its real meaning is ... a career open to the talents." This means that there should be "no arbitrary obstacles" blocking a person from realizing their ambitions, and that "Not birth, nationality, color, religion, sex, nor any other irrelevant characteristic should determine the opportunities that are open to a person -- only his abilities."
A somewhat different view was expressed by John Roemer
John Roemer
John E. Roemer is an American economist and political scientist. He is currently the Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Stout Professor of Political Science and Economics at Yale University. Prior to joining Yale, he was on the economics faculty at the University of California, Davis, and before entering...
who used the term nondiscrimination principle to mean that "all individuals who possess the attributes relevant for the performance of the duties of the position in question be included in the pool of eligible candidates, and that an individual's possible occupancy of the position be judged only with respect to those relevant attributes." Matt Cavanagh
Matt Cavanagh
Matt Cavanagh is an Associate Director at the Institute for Public Policy Research, working on UK immigration policy. From 2003 to 2010 he was a special adviser in the UK Labour government. He worked for Home Secretary David Blunkett; for Chancellor Gordon Brown; for Defence Secretary Des Browne;...
argued that race and sex shouldn't matter when getting a job, but that the sense of equality of opportunity should not extend much further than preventing straightforward discrimination.
It is a relatively straightforward task for legislators to ban blatant efforts to favor one group over another and encourage equality of opportunity as a result. Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
banned gender-specific job descriptions in advertising as well as sexual discrimination in employment as well as other practices deemed unfair, although a subsequent report suggested that the law was having minimal effect in securing Japanese women high positions in management. In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is an independent federal law enforcement agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, perceived intelligence,...
sued a private test preparation
Test preparation
Test preparation or exam preparation primarily refers to educational courses, tutoring services, and educational materials/learning tools designed to increase students' performance on standardized tests, particularly entrance examinations used for admissions to institutions of higher education,...
firm, Kaplan
Kaplan, Inc.
Kaplan, Inc. is a for-profit corporation headquartered in New York City and was founded in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan. Kaplan provides higher education programs, professional training courses, test preparation materials and other services for various levels of education...
, for unfairly using credit histories to discriminate against African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s in terms of hiring decisions. According to one analysis, it is possible to imagine a democracy which meets the formal criteria (1 through 3) but which still favors wealthy candidates who are selected in free and fair elections.
Substantive equality of opportunity
This term, sometimes called fair equality of opportunity, is a somewhat broader and more expansive concept than the more limiting formal equality of opportunity and it deals with what is sometimes described as indirect discrimination. It goes farther, and is more controversial than the formal variant, and has been thought to be much harder to achieve, with greater disagreement about how to achieve greater equality, and has been described as "unstable", particularly if the society in question is unequal to begin with in terms of great disparity of wealth. It has been identified as more of a left–leaning political position but this not a hard–and–fast rule. The substantive model is advocated by people who see limitations in the formal model:In the substantive approach, the starting point before the race begins is unfair, since people have had differing experiences before even approaching the competition. The substantive approach examines the applicants themselves before applying for a position, and judges whether they have equal abilities or talents, and if not, then it suggests that authorities (usually the government) take steps to make applicants more equal before they get to the point where they compete for a position, and fixing the before–the–starting point issues has sometimes been described as working towards "fair access to qualifications." It seeks to remedy inequalities perhaps because of an "unfair disadvantage" based sometimes on "prejudice in the past." According to John Hills, children of wealthy and well-connected parents usually have a decisive advantage over other types of children, and he notes that "advantage and disadvantage reinforce themselves over the life cycle, and often on to the next generation" so that successful parents pass along their wealth and education to succeeding generations, making it difficult for others to climb up a social ladder. But so-called positive action efforts to bring an underprivileged person up to speed before a competition begins are limited to the period of time before the evaluation begins; at that point, the "final selection for posts must be made according to the principle the best person for the job," that is, a less qualified applicant should not be chosen over a more qualified applicant. And there are nuanced views too: one position suggested that the unequal results following a competition were unjust if caused by bad luck but just if chosen by the individual, and that weighing matters such as personal responsibility was important; this variant of the substantive model has sometimes been called luck egalitarianism. Still, regardless of the nuances, the overall idea is to give children from less fortunate backgrounds more of a chance, or to achieve at the beginning what some theorists call equality of condition. Writer Ha-Joon Chang expressed this view:
In a sense, substantive equality of opportunity moves the "starting point" further back in time. Sometimes it entails the use of affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
policies to help all contenders become equal before they get to the starting point, perhaps with greater training, or sometimes redistributing resources via coercion
Coercion
Coercion is the practice of forcing another party to behave in an involuntary manner by use of threats or intimidation or some other form of pressure or force. In law, coercion is codified as the duress crime. Such actions are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in the desired way...
or taxation to make the contenders more equal. It holds that all who have a "genuine opportunity to become qualified" be given a chance to do so. And it is sometimes based on a recognition that unfairness exists, hindering social mobility
Social mobility
Social mobility refers to the movement of people in a population from one social class or economic level to another. It typically refers to vertical mobility -- movement of individuals or groups up from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marrying; but can also refer to...
, combined with a sense that the unfairness should not exist or should be lessened in some manner. One example postulated was that a warrior society could provide special nutritional supplements to poor children, offer scholarships to military academies, and dispatch "warrior skills coaches" to every village as a way to make opportunity substantively more fair. The idea is give every ambitious and talented youth a chance to compete for prize positions regardless of their circumstances of birth.
The substantive position was advocated by Bhikhu Parekh in 2000 in Rethinking Multiculturalism who wrote that "all citizens should enjoy equal opportunities to acquire the capacities and skills needed to function in society and to pursue their self-chosen goals equally effectively" and that "equalising measures are justified on grounds of justice as well as social integration and harmony." Parekh argued that equal opportunities included so-called cultural rights which are "ensured by the politics of recognition."
Affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
programs usually fall under the substantive category. The idea is to help disadvantaged groups get back to a normal starting position after a long period of discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
. The programs involve government action, sometimes with resources being transferred from an advantaged group to a disadvantaged one, and these programs have been justified on the grounds that imposing quota
Quota
-Commerce:* Import quota, a type of trade restriction* Production quota* Sales quota, a minimum sales goal for a set time span* Tariff-rate quota, a type of trade restriction-Electoral systems:* Droop quota* Election threshold* Hagenbach-Bischoff quota...
s counter-balances the past discrimination as well as being a "compelling state interest" in diversity in society. For example, there was a case in Sao Paulo in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
of a quota imposed on the São Paulo Fashion Week
São Paulo Fashion Week
The São Paulo Fashion Week is a fashion event, held at Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo, notable as "Latin America's pre-eminent fashion event," according to one report. It began in 1996, when the event was known as Morumbi Fashion Brazil. It won the current name in January 2001. Today, the event is...
to require that "at least 10 percent of the models to be black or indigenous", as a coercive measure to counteract a "longstanding bias towards white models." It does not have to be accomplished via government action; for example, in the 1980s in the United States, President Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
dismantled parts of affirmative action, but one report in the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
suggested that companies remained committed to the principle of equal opportunity regardless of government requirements. In another instance, upper-middle class students taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test in the United States performed better, since they had had more "economic and educational resources to prepare for these test than others." The test, itself, was seen as fair in a formal sense, but the overall result was seen as nevertheless unfair. In India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, the Indian Institutes of Technology
Indian Institutes of Technology
The Indian Institutes of Technology are a group of autonomous engineering and technology-oriented institutes of higher education. The IITs are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 which has declared them as “institutions of national importance”, and lays down their powers, duties,...
found that to achieve substantive equality of opportunity, the school had to reserve 22.5 percent of seats for applicants from "historically disadvantaged schedule castes and tribes." Elite universities in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
began a special "entrance program" to help applicants from "impoverished suburbs."
Equality of fair opportunity
Philosopher John RawlsJohn Rawls
John Bordley Rawls was an American philosopher and a leading figure in moral and political philosophy. He held the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard University....
offered this variant of substantive equality of opportunity, and explained that it happens when individuals with the same "native talent and the same ambition" have the same prospects of success in competitions. Gordon Marshall offers a similar view with the words "positions are to be open to all under conditions in which persons of similar abilities have equal access to office." An example was given: If two persons X and Y have identical talent but X is from a poor family while Y is from a rich one, then equality of fair opportunity is in effect when both X and Y have the same chance of winning the job. It suggests the ideal society is "classless" without a social hierarchy being passed from generation to generation, although parents can still pass along advantages to their children by genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
and socialization
Socialization
Socialization is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, political scientists and educationalists to refer to the process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs and ideologies...
skills. One view suggests that this approach might advocate "invasive interference in family life." Marshall posed this question:
Economist Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman
Paul Robin Krugman is an American economist, professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times...
agrees mostly with the Rawlsian approach in that he would like to "create the society each of us would want if we didn’t know in advance who we’d be. Krugman elaborated: "If you admit that life is unfair, and that there’s only so much you can do about that at the starting line, then you can try to ameliorate the consequences of that unfairness."
Level playing field
Distributive justice
Distributive justice concerns what some consider to be socially just allocation of goods in a society. A society in which incidental inequalities in outcome do not arise would be considered a society guided by the principles of distributive justice...
espoused by John Roemer
John Roemer
John E. Roemer is an American economist and political scientist. He is currently the Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Stout Professor of Political Science and Economics at Yale University. Prior to joining Yale, he was on the economics faculty at the University of California, Davis, and before entering...
and Ronald Dworkin
Ronald Dworkin
Ronald Myles Dworkin, QC, FBA is an American philosopher and scholar of constitutional law. He is Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law and Philosophy at New York University and Emeritus Professor of Jurisprudence at University College London, and has taught previously at Yale Law School and the...
and others. Like the substantive notion, the level playing field conception goes farther than the usual formal approach. The idea is that initial "unchosen inequalities"––prior circumstances over which an individual had no control but which impact his or her success in a given competition for a particular post––these unchosen inequalities should be eliminated as much as possible, according to this conception. According to Roemer, society should "do what it can to level the playing field so that all those with relevant potential will eventually be admissible to pools of candidates competing for positions. Afterwards, when an individual competes for a specific post, he or she might make specific choices which cause future inequalities––and these inequalities are deemed acceptable because of the previous presumption of fairness. And this system helps undergird the legitimacy of a society's divvying up of roles as a result in the sense that it makes certain achieved inequalities "morally acceptable," according to persons who advocate this approach. This conception has been contrasted to the substantive version among some thinkers, and it usually has ramifications for how society treats young persons in such areas as education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
and socialization
Socialization
Socialization is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, political scientists and educationalists to refer to the process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs and ideologies...
and health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
. But this conception has been criticized as well. Rawls postulated the difference principle
Justice as Fairness
Justice as Fairness is the political philosopher John Rawls' conception of justice. It comprises two main principles of Liberty and Equality; the second is subdivided into Fair Equality of Opportunity and the Difference Principle....
which argued that "inequalities are justified only if needed to improve the lot of the worst off, for example by giving the talented an incentive to create wealth."
Meritocracy
There is some overlap among these different conceptions with the term meritocracyMeritocracy
Meritocracy, in the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or...
which describes an administrative system which rewards such factors as individual intelligence
Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving....
, credentials, education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
, knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
or other criteria believed to confer merit. Equality of opportunity is often seen as a major aspect of a meritocracy. One view was that equality of opportunity was more focused on what happens before the race begins, while meritocracy is more focused on fairness at the competition stage.
Moral senses
There is general agreement that equality of opportunity is a good thing for a society (although since this is a value judgement there are many diverse opinions) and is generally viewed as a positive political ideal in the abstract. In nations where equality of opportunity is absent, it can negatively impact economic growthEconomic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
, according to some views; one report in Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
suggested that Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, and other Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
ern nations were stagnating economically in part because of a dearth of equal opportunity.. Equal opportunity can confict with the ideas of a meritocracy
Meritocracy
Meritocracy, in the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or...
when individual differences in human abilities are thought to be largely genetic
Genetic
Genetic may refer to:*Genetics, in biology, the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms**Genetic, used as an adjective, refers to heredity of traits**Gene, a unit of heredity in the genome of an organism...
and inherited. Ironing out these conflicts usually leads to great disputes.
Difficulties with implementation
There is general agreement that programs to bring about certain types of equality of opportunity can be difficult, and that efforts to cause one result often have unintended consequences or cause other problems. There is agreement that the formal approach is easier to implement than the others, although there are difficulties there too.A government policy that requires equal treatment can pose problems for lawmakers. A requirement for government to provide equal health care services for all citizens can be prohibitively expensive. If government seeks equality of opportunity for citizens to get health care by rationing services using a maximization model to try to save money, new difficulties might emerge. For example, trying to ration health care by maximizing the "quality-adjusted years of life" might steer monies away from disabled persons even though they may be more deserving, according to one analysis. In another instance, BBC News questioned whether it was wise to ask female army recruits to undergo the same strenuous tests as their male counterparts, since many women were being injured as a result.
Age discimination can present vexing challenges for policymakers trying to implement equal opportunity. According to several studies, attempts to be equally fair to both a young and an old person are problematic because the older person has presumably fewer years left to live, and it may make more sense for a society to invest greater resources in a younger person's health. Treating both persons equally, while following the letter of the equality of opportunity, seems unfair from a different perspective.
Another difficulty is that it is hard for a society to bring substantive equality of opportunity to every type of position or industry. If a nation focuses efforts on some industries or positions, then people with other talents may be left out. For example, in an example in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a freely-accessible online encyclopedia of philosophy maintained by Stanford University. Each entry is written and maintained by an expert in the field, including professors from over 65 academic institutions worldwide...
, a warrior society might provide equal opportunity for all kinds of people to achieve military success through fair competition, but people with non-military skills such as farming may be left out.
Lawmakers have run into problems trying to implement equality of opportunity. In 2010 in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, a legal requirement "forcing public bodies to try to reduce inequalities caused by class disadvantage" was scrapped after much debate, and replaced by a hope that organizations would try to focus more on "fairness" than "equality"; fairness is generally seen as a much vaguer concept than equality, but easier for politicians to manage if they are seeking to avoid fractious debate. In New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, mayor Ed Koch
Ed Koch
Edward Irving "Ed" Koch is an American lawyer, politician, and political commentator. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and three terms as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989...
tried to find ways to maintain the "principle of equal treatment" while arguing against more substantive and abrupt transfer payments called minority set-asides.
Many countries have specific bodies tasked with looking at equality of opportunity issues; in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, for example, it is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is an independent federal law enforcement agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, perceived intelligence,...
; in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, there is the Equality of opportunity committee as well as the Equality and Human Rights Commission; in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the Royal Commission on the Status of Women
Royal Commission on the Status of Women
The Royal Commission on the Status of Women was a Canadian Royal Commission that examined the status of women and recommended steps that might be taken by the federal government to ensure equal opportunities with men and women in all aspects of Canadian society. The Commission commenced on 16...
has "equal opportunity as its precept." In China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, the Equal Opportunities Commission
Equal Opportunities Commission (Hong Kong)
Equal Opportunities Commission is a statutory body responsible for implementing the Sex Discrimination Ordinance, the Disability Discrimination Ordinance, the Family Status Discrimination Ordinance and the Race Discrimination Ordinance in Hong Kong...
handles matters regarding ethnic prejudice. In addition, there have been political movements pushing for equal treatment, such as the Women's Equal Opportunity League which in the early decades of the twentieth century, pushed for fair treatment by employers in the U.S. One of the group's members explained:
Difficulties with measurement
The consensus view is that trying to measure equality of opportunity is difficult whether examining a single hiring decision or looking at groups over time.- Single instance. It is possible to reexamine the procedures governing a specific hiring decision, see if they were followed, and re-evaluate the selection by asking questions such as: was it fair? were fair procedures followed? was the best applicant selected? This is a judgment call and it is possible that biases may enter into the minds of decision–makers. The determination of equality of opportunity in such an instance is based on mathematical probabilityProbabilityProbability is ordinarily used to describe an attitude of mind towards some proposition of whose truth we arenot certain. The proposition of interest is usually of the form "Will a specific event occur?" The attitude of mind is of the form "How certain are we that the event will occur?" The...
: if equality of opportunity is in effect, then it's seen as fair if each of two applicants has a 50% chance of winning the job, that is, they both have equal chances to succeed (assuming of course that the person making the probability assessment is unaware of all variables––including valid ones such as talent or skill as well as arbitrary ones such as race or gender.) But it is hard to measure whether each applicant had, in fact, a 50% chance, based on the outcome.
- Groups. When assessing equal opportunity for a type of job or company or industry or nation, then statistical analysis is often done by looking at patterns and abnormalities, typically comparing subgroups with larger groups on a percentage basis. If equality of opportunity is violated, perhaps by discriminationDiscriminationDiscrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
which affects a subgroup or population over time, it is possible to make this determination using statistical analysis, but there are numerous difficulties involved. Nevertheless, entities such as city governments and universities have hired full-time professionals with knowledge of statistics to ensure compliance with equal opportunity regulations. For example, Colorado State UniversityColorado State UniversityColorado State University is a public research university located in Fort Collins, Colorado. The university is the state's land grant university, and the flagship university of the Colorado State University System.The enrollment is approximately 29,932 students, including resident and...
requires their director of its Office of Equal Opportunity to maintain extensive statistics on its employees by job category as well as minoritiesMinority groupA minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...
and genderGenderGender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
. In BritainUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Aberystwyth University collects information including the "representation of women, men, members of racial or ethnic minorities and people with disabilities amongst applicants for posts, candidates interviewed, new appointments, current staff, promotions and holders of discretionary awards" to comply with equal opportunity laws.
It is difficult to prove unequal treatment although statistical analysis can provide indications of problems, but it is subject to conflicts over interpretation and methodological issues. For example, a study in 2007 by the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
examined its own treatment of women. Researchers collected statistics about female participation in numerous aspects of university life, including percentages of women with full professorships (23%), enrollment in programs such as nursing(90%) and engineering (18%). There is wide variation in how these statistics might be interpreted. For example, the 23% figure for women with full professorships could be compared to the total population of women (presumably 50%) perhaps using census data, or it might be compared to the percentage of women with full professorships at competing universities. It might be used in an analysis of how many women applied for the position of full professor compared to how many women attained this position. Further, the 23% figure could be used as a benchmark or baseline figure as part of an ongoing longitudinal analysis to be compared with future surveys to track progress over time. In addition, the strength of the conclusions is subject to statistical issues such as sample size and bias
Bias (statistics)
A statistic is biased if it is calculated in such a way that it is systematically different from the population parameter of interest. The following lists some types of, or aspects of, bias which should not be considered mutually exclusive:...
. For reasons such as these, there is considerable difficulty with most forms of statistical interpretation.
Statistical analysis of equal opportunity has been done using sophisticated examinations of computer databases. An analysis in 2011 by University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
researcher Stefano Allesina examined 61,000 names of Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
professors by looking at the "frequency of last names", doing one million random drawings, and he suggested that Italian academia was characterized by violations of equal opportunity practices as a result of these investigations. The last names of Italian professors tended to be similar more often than predicted by random chance. The study suggested that newspaper accounts showing that "nine relatives from three generations of a single family (were) on the economics faculty" at the University of Bari
University of Bari
The University of Bari is a university located in Bari, Italy. It was founded in 1925 and is organized in 12 Faculties.-Organization:These are the 13 faculties in which the university is divided into:* Faculty of Agricultural Science...
were not abberations, but indicated a pattern of nepotism
Nepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
throughout Italian academia.
There is support for the view that often equality of opportunity is measured by the criteria of equality of outcome
Equality of outcome
Equality of outcome, equality of condition, or equality of results is a controversial political concept. Although it is not always clearly defined, it is usually taken to describe a state in which people have approximately the same material wealth or, more generally, in which the general conditions...
, although with difficulty. In one example, an analysis of relative equality of opportunity was done based on outcomes, such as a case to see whether hiring decisions were fair regarding men versus women; the analysis was done using statistics based on average salaries for different groups. In another instance, a cross-sectional statistical analysis was conducted to see whether social class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
affected participation in the United States Armed Forces
United States armed forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
; a report in Time Magazine by MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
suggested that soldiers came from a variety of social classes, and that the principle of equal opportunity had worked, possibly because soldiers had been chosen by a lottery
Lottery
A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...
process for conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
.
Marketplace considerations
Equal opportunity has been described as a fundamental "basic notion" in business and commerce, and described by economistEconomist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
as a basic economic precept. There has been research suggesting that "competitive markets will tend to drive out such discrimination" since employers or institutions which hire based on arbitrary criteria will be weaker as a result, and not perform as well as firms which embrace equality of opportunity. Firms competing for overseas contracts have sometimes argued in the press for equal chances during the bidding process, such as when American oil corporations wanted equal shots at developing oil fields in Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
; and firms, seeing how fairness is beneficial while competing for contracts, can apply the lesson to other areas such as internal hiring and promotion decisions. A report in USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
suggested that the goal of equal opportunity was "being achieved throughout most of the business and government labor markets because major employers pay based on potential and actual productivity." Fair opportunity practices include measures taken by an organization to ensure fairness in the employment process. A basic definition of equality is the idea of equal treatment and respect. In job advertisements and descriptions, the fact that the employer is an equal opportunity employer is sometimes indicated by the abbreviations EOE or MFDV which stands for Minority, Female, Disabled, Veteran. Analyst Ross Douthat in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
suggested that equality of opportunity depends to a great extent on a rising economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
which brings new chances for upward mobility, and he suggested that greater equality of opportunity is more easily achieved during "times of plenty." Efforts to achieve equal opportunity can rise and recede, sometimes as a result of economic conditions or political choices.
History
According to professor David Christian of MacQuarie University, an underlying "big history" trend has been a shift from seeing people as resources to exploit towards a perspective of seeing people as individuals to empower. According to Christian, in many ancient agrarian civilizations, roughly nine of every ten persons was a peasant exploited by a ruling class. In the past thousand years, there has been a gradual movement in the direction of greater respect for equal opportunity, as political structures based on generational hierarchies and feudalismFeudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
broke down during the late Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and new structures emerged during the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
. Monarchies
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
were replaced by democracies
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
; kings were replaced by parliaments and congresses. Slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
was abolished generally. The new entity of the nation state emerged with highly specialized parts, including corporation
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
s, laws, and new ideas about citizenship
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
, and values about individual rights
Individual rights
Group rights are rights held by a group rather than by its members separately, or rights held only by individuals within the specified group; in contrast, individual rights are rights held by individual people regardless of their group membership or lack thereof...
found expression in constitutions, laws, and statutes.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, one legal analyst suggested that the real beginning of the modern sense of equal opportunity was in the Fourteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
which provided "equal protection under the law." The amendment did not mention equal opportunity directly, but it helped undergird a series of later rulings which dealt with legal struggles, particularly by African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s and later women, seeking greater political and economic power in the growing republic. In 1933, a congressional "Unemployment Relief Act" forbade discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
"on the basis of race, color, or creed". The Supreme Court's
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
1954 Brown v Board of Education decision furthered government initiatives to end discrimination. In 1961, President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
signed Executive Order 10925
Executive Order 10925
Executive Order 10925 was signed by President John F. Kennedy on March 6, 1961, requiring government contractors to "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." It...
which enabled a presidential committee on equal opportunity, which was soon followed by President Johnson's Executive Order 11246
Executive Order 11246
Executive Order 11246, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 24, 1965 required Equal Employment Opportunity. The Order "prohibits federal contractors and federally assisted construction contractors and subcontractors, who do over $10,000 in Government business in one year from...
. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
became the legal underpinning of equal opportunity in employment. Businesses and other organizations learned to comply with the rulings by specifying fair hiring and promoting practices and posting these policy notices on bulletin boards, employee handbooks, and manuals as well as training sessions and films. Courts dealt with issues about equal opportunity, such as the 1989 Wards Cove decision, the Supreme Court ruled that statistical evidence, by itself, was insufficient to prove racial discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is an independent federal law enforcement agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, perceived intelligence,...
was established, sometimes reviewing charges of discrimination cases which numbered in the tens of thousands annually during the 1990s. Some law practices specialized in employment law. Conflict between formal and substantive approaches manifested itself in backlashes, sometimes described as reverse discrimination
Reverse discrimination
Reverse discrimination is a controversial term referring to discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group, including the city or state, or in favor of members of a minority or historically disadvantaged group such as African Americans being slaves. Groups may be defined in terms of...
, such as the Bakke
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that ruled unconstitutional the admission process of the Medical School at the University of California at Davis, which set aside 16 of the 100 seats for African American...
case when a white male applicant to medical school sued on the basis of being denied admission because of a quota system preferring minority applicants. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a law that was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1990. It was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush, and later amended with changes effective January 1, 2009....
prohibited discrimination against disabled persons, including cases of equal opportunity. In 2008, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 , is an Act of Congress in the United States designed to prohibit the improper use of genetic information in health insurance and employment...
prevents employers from using genetic information when hiring
Hiring
Hiring may refer to:* Recruitment of personnel * Renting of something...
, firing
Firing
Dismissal is the termination of employment by an employer against the will of the employee. Though such a decision can be made by an employer for a variety of reasons, ranging from an economic downturn to performance-related problems on the part of the employee, being fired has a strong stigma in...
, or promoting
Promotion (rank)
A promotion is the advancement of an employee's rank or position in an organizational hierarchy system. Promotion may be an employee's reward for good performance i.e. positive appraisal...
employees.
Criticism
There have been various criticisms of equality of opportunity from numerous perspectives and angles, with generally more criticism directed at the substantive approach, although there has been criticism of the formal approach as well. One account suggests that left–leaning thinkers who advocate equality of outcomeEquality of outcome
Equality of outcome, equality of condition, or equality of results is a controversial political concept. Although it is not always clearly defined, it is usually taken to describe a state in which people have approximately the same material wealth or, more generally, in which the general conditions...
fault even formal equality of opportunity on the grounds that it "legitimates inequalities of wealth and income." John William Gardner suggested several views: (1) that inequalities will always exist regardless of trying to erase them (2) that bringing everyone "fairly to the starting line" without dealing with the "destructive competitiveness that follows" (3) any equalities achieved will entail future inequalities. Substantive equality of opportunity has led to concerns that efforts to improve fairness "ultimately collapses into the different one of equality of outcome
Equality of outcome
Equality of outcome, equality of condition, or equality of results is a controversial political concept. Although it is not always clearly defined, it is usually taken to describe a state in which people have approximately the same material wealth or, more generally, in which the general conditions...
or condition."
There is speculation that since equality of opportunity is only one of sometimes competing "justice norms", there is a risk that following equality of opportunity too strictly might cause problems in other areas. A hypothetical example was suggested: suppose wealthier people gave excessive amounts of campaign contributions; suppose, further, that these contributions resulted in better regulations; then, laws limiting such contributions on the basis of equal opportunity for all political participants may have the unintended long term consequence of making political decision-making lackluster and possibly hurting the groups that it was trying to protect. Philosopher John Kekes
John Kekes
John Kekes is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University at Albany . He received his Ph.D...
makes a similar point in his book The Art of Politics: The New Betrayal of America and How to Resist It in which he suggests that there is a danger to elevating any one particular political good––including equality of opportunity––without balancing competing goods such as justice, property rights, and others. Kekes advocated having a balanced perspective, including a continuing dialog between cautionary elements and reform elements. A similar view was expressed in The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
:
Economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman
Paul Robin Krugman is an American economist, professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times...
sees equality of opportunity as a "non-Utopian compromise" which works and is a "pretty decent arrangement" which varies from country to country. But there are differing views, such as by Matt Cavanagh
Matt Cavanagh
Matt Cavanagh is an Associate Director at the Institute for Public Policy Research, working on UK immigration policy. From 2003 to 2010 he was a special adviser in the UK Labour government. He worked for Home Secretary David Blunkett; for Chancellor Gordon Brown; for Defence Secretary Des Browne;...
, who criticised equality of opportunity in his 2002 book Against Equality of Opportunity
Against Equality of Opportunity
Against Equality of Opportunity is a 2002 book by Matt Cavanagh.The work is a critique of the doctrine of equal opportunity. Cavanagh argues against the conventional understanding of equal opportunity, in particular both meritocracy and most substantial interpretations of equality, including the...
. Cavanath favored a limited approach of opposing specific kinds of discrimination as steps to help people get greater control over their lives.
Conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
thinker Dinesh D'Souza
Dinesh D'Souza
Dinesh D'Souza is an author and public speaker and a former Robert and Karen Rishwain Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is currently the President of The King's College in New York City. D'Souza is a noted Christian apologist and conservative writer and speaker....
criticized equality of opportunity on the basis that "it is an ideal that cannot and should not be realized through the actions of the government" and added that "for the state to enforce equal opportunity would be to contravene the true meaning of the Declaration
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
and to subvert the principle of a free society." D'Souza described how his parenting undermined equality of opportunity:
An argument similar to D'Souza's was raised by Nozick in Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Anarchy, State, and Utopia is a work of political philosophy written by Robert Nozick in 1974. This minarchist book was the winner of the 1975 National Book Award...
, who wrote that the only way to achieve equality of opportunity was "directly worsening the situations of those more favored with opportunity, or by improving the situation of those less well-favored." Nozick gave an argument of two suitors competing to marry one "fair lady": X was plain; Y was better looking and more intelligent. If Y didn't exist, then "fair lady" would have married X; but Y exists, so she marries Y. Nozick asks: Does suitor X have a legitimate complaint against Y on the basis of unfairness since Y didn't earn his good looks or intelligence? Nozick suggests that there is no grounds for complaint. Nozick argued against equality of opportunity on the grounds that it violates the rights
Rights
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory...
of property, since the equal opportunity maxim interferes with an owner's right to do what he or she pleases with a property. Property rights were a major component of the philosophy of John Locke
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
, and are sometimes referred to as Lockean rights. The sense of the argument is along these lines: equal opportunity rules regarding, say, a hiring decision within a factory, made to bring about greater fairness, violate a factory owner's rights to run the factory as he or she sees best; it has been argued that a factory owner's right to property encompasses all decision-making within the factory as being part of those property rights. That some people's "natural assets" were unearned is irrelevant to the equation, according to Nozick, and he argued that people are nevertheless entitled to enjoy these assets and other things freely given by others.
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought...
felt that luck was too much of a variable in economics, such that one can not devise a system with any kind of fairness when many market outcomes are unintended. By sheer chance or random circumstances, a person may become wealthy just by being in the right place and time, and Hayek argued that it is impossible to devise a system to make opportunities equal without knowing how such interactions may play out. Hayek saw not only equality of opportunity but all of social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
as a "mirage".
Some conceptions of equality of opportunity, particularly the substantive and level playing field variants, have been criticized on the basis that they make assumptions to the effect that people have similar genetic makeups. Other critics have suggested that social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
is more complex than mere equality of opportunity. Robert Nozick made the point that what happens in society can not always be reduced to competitions for a coveted position; in 1974, Nozick wrote that "life is not a race in which we all compete for a prize which someone has established" and that there is "no unified race" and there is not some one person "judging swiftness."
See also
- Universal accessUniversal accessUniversal access to education is the ability of all people to have equal opportunity in education, regardless of their social class, ethnicity, background or physical disabilities. The term is used both in college admission for the middle and lower classes, and in assistive technology for the...
- MeritocracyMeritocracyMeritocracy, in the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or...
- EgalitarianismEgalitarianismEgalitarianism is a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort among moral agents, whether persons or animals. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that equality contains the idea of equity of quality...
- Simultaneous Recruiting of New GraduatesSimultaneous Recruiting of New Graduatesis the custom that companies hire new graduates all at once and employ them; this custom is unique to Japan and South Korea. The Japanese post-war economic miracle spread this custom among many companies in order to produce steady employment every year....
- Equality of outcomeEquality of outcomeEquality of outcome, equality of condition, or equality of results is a controversial political concept. Although it is not always clearly defined, it is usually taken to describe a state in which people have approximately the same material wealth or, more generally, in which the general conditions...
- Asset-based egalitarianismAsset-based egalitarianismAsset-based egalitarianism is a form of egalitarianism which theorises that equality is possible by a redistribution of resources, usually in the form of a capital grant provided at the age of majority...
- Affirmative actionAffirmative actionAffirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
- Affirmative action in the United StatesAffirmative action in the United StatesIn the United States, affirmative action refers to equal opportunity employment measures that Federal contractors and subcontractors are legally required to adopt. These measures are intended to prevent discrimination against employees or applicants for employment, on the basis of "color,...
- Women and children first (saying)
- Equality of autonomyEquality of autonomyEquality of autonomy is a concept from political philosophy advocated by Amartya Sen which suggests that societies should strive to help individuals have an equal chance at autonomy or empowerment...
- Bona fide occupational qualificationsBona fide occupational qualificationsIn employment law, a bona fide occupational qualification or bona fide occupational requirement is a quality or an attribute that employers are allowed to consider when making decisions on the hiring and retention of employees—qualities that when considered in other contexts would constitute...
External links
- United Kingdom
- United States
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (US) - the branch of the U.S. government that enforces equal opportunity laws in workplaces.
- Department of the Interior Office for Equal Opportunity (US)