Equal opportunity
Equal opportunity is a descriptive term for an approach intended to give equal access to a certain
social environment, or to ensure people are not specifically excluded from participating in activities such as
education,
employment, or
health care on the basis of
immutable traits. Equal opportunity practices include measures taken by organizations to ensure fairness in the employment process.
Equal opportunity practices that are
race-blind or
gender-blind may be distinguished from practices that involve or require
affirmative action or
reverse discrimination. The
United States federal government and various state and
local governments require affirmative action in terms of governmental hiring and contracting; many other countries make such action illegal. Executive 11246 requires any group or company doing business with or receiving money from the government to have an equal oppourtunity for all workers, including an affirmative action plan. This has been debated because many feel affirmative action actually causes an inequal opporttunity.
The method of providing equal opportunity is often a subject of controversy, as is the means by which to measure the success or failure of equal opportunity policies.
Opportunity itself is often difficult - if not impossible - to accurately measure. Thus, in practice, equal opportunity is said to exist when people with similar abilities reach similar results (
equality of outcome) after doing a similar amount of work. Indeed, equal opportunity and equality of outcome are often seen as complimentary.
As long as inequalities can be passed form one
generation to another through gifts and wealth
inheritance, it is unclear that equality of opportunity for children can be achieved without greater equality of outcome for parents effectively limiting parents ability to bestow additional benefits over and above the population average. Creating equality of opportunity for children in practical terms would mean equalising opportunities by limiting the benefit a parent can bestow to an accepted norm as well as assisting and insisting parents providing opportunities below that accepted norm increase their increase their support to meet the standard. This level of ensuring equality of opportunity would require limiting the ability of parents to ensure better lives for their children through additional education, support, gifts, and inheritance.
Societies must choose whether equal opportunities in society are to be based on immutable traits (eg. gender, race) or whether to extend their demands to include mutable traits (eg. hair style, education, language, wealth). Equal opportunity does not necessarily diminish the possibible rewards of
meritocracy where treatment is based on immutable traits only. Where the pursuit of
equalisation of treatment is also based on mutable traits this invokes
social justice programs such as
affirmative action or
positive discrimination.
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Asset-based egalitarianism*
Equal Opportunity Employment*
Universal access*
Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (Belgium)
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Commission for Racial Equality (UK)*
Disability Rights Commission (UK)*
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (US)*
Equal Opportunities Commission (UK) - gender equality
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Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (Australia)*
Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (US)*
New Brunswick Equal Opportunity program*
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights*United Kingdom
**World Bank
Doing Business project**
UK Governmen Women & Equality Unit**
The Scout Association of the UK*United States
**
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (US) - the branch of the U.S. government that enforces equal opportunity laws in workplaces.
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NAFEO - National Association For Equal Opportunity In Higher Education (US)**
Department of the Interior Office for Equal Opportunity (US)**
Center for Equal Opportunity (US) - an advocacy group against affirmative action
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Equality of Opportunity**
Equal Opportunities International (established in 1982, a journal by Emerald Press)
