Social inequality, Discrimination, Affirmative action

Affirmative action (hereforth referred to as AA) is defined as a set of practices undertaken by employers, university admission offices, and government agencies to go beyond nondiscrimination, with the goal of actively improving the economic status of minorities and women with regard to employment, education and business ownership and growth (Holzer Neumark, 469). The phrase affirmative action was introduced by Executive Order 10925. EO 10925 was issued by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1961, which urged employers to actively adopt policies and safeguards against discriminatory practices in their workplace. Four years after, EO 11246 made it mandatory for federal contractors and subcontractors to (1) identify underutilized minorities, (2) assess availability of minorities, and if