In Defense of Affirmative Action

"In Defense of Affirmative Action" presents overwhelming evidence that continuing discrimination against blacks and women, even where overt racial bigotry and sexism are absent, determines who gets ahead and who doesn't in this country.Barbara R. Bergmann, a distinguished feminist and economist, boldly acknowledges that affirmative action does indeed force employees to "play a quotas game." Yet if we do away with it, she argues, it is naive or willfully dishonest to imagine we will be left with a system that is gender-blind and race-blind, where hiring and promotion are solely based on merit.

In this compelling and illuminating study, the author explores who should get quotas and for how long; shows how 50 large corporations differ radically in how much integration they have achieved; and presents abundant evidence that affirmative action, where systematically applied, has undone justice and provided real economic benefit.