What was the recent SCOTUS ruling on AA?

To benefit women, people of color and people with disabilities, primarily. Those demographics are among the most affected socially and historically when it comes to employment and education.

I view affirmative action as an auxiliary tool, but not the tool that's going to "correct wrong doing of the past" in and of itself. I believe that would be achieved by larger, more intensive social programs and initiatives. To that end, I would be comfortable no longer needing/wanting affirmative action when those larger social programs/initiatives have been established and accomplished the goals that they've set out. However, we're still quite a far away from achieving such a society, although I'm a staunch optimist and believe we are moving in the right direction overall.

I'm telling the trans community about this post right now and they're VERY disappointed in you. In fact I just heard they're taking away half of your QUILTBAG points from sucking off that Republican trucker last week.

The University of Texas uses affirmative action-related considerations in their university admissions, as part of a "personal achievement index". A woman by the name of Abigail Fisher, who is white, didn't get accepted to UT as a freshman, and claimed that she was discriminated against and didn't get in because of those affirmative action considerations, and that affirmative action as a whole (at least, in university applications) is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court upheld UT's usage of affirmative action.

Abigail Fisher is a complete joke though, even though she was just used as a pawn.

Such disappointment.

I mean, yeah, there are other groups I consider affirmative action to apply to though, including the queer community for sure. Just noted some of the primary demographics, mostly from a historical standpoint. Mostly because the queer civil rights movement tends to be relatively "newer".

Can you be specific here? What are some goals that should be set out for women today under these programs, where are women suffering in employment and education?

Well, without being too specific, and talking about just a very general idea: A great place to start, would be to work towards eradicating the gender roles/stereotypes in society so that we would (ideally) see a reduction in the disparities involved in workforce demographics with respect to industry/degree. For instance, although true that there are more women in college than men these days, there's a gender-related trend in which the majors that pay comparatively less (ex. early childhood education) are filled by predominately women v. majors that pay comparatively more (ex. nuclear engineering), which are predominately filled by men.

A great portion of the "wage gap" debate should also be about wage disparities across industry/degree and the way(s) in which gender is factored into those observations.

This post was edited by Handcuffs on Jun 29 2016 08:19pm

Do you really think we should pay the same for early childhood education as we do nuclear engineers? I can't agree with you if this is your stance.

I mostly just wanted to be a jerkbag, as I'm pretty aware that you're pretty aware. Just to clarify, in case it wasn't already obvs.

No, no, it's not to say that different industries should have equal pay, or that early childhood education (as an industry) should be paid the same as nuclear engineering.

What I'm saying is that there's a gender-related socialization process in which people are either predisposed or encouraged into certain industries (or discouraged out of), and because those industries pay differently, it translates to a disparity (on average) in earning between gender demographics. Ideally, there shouldn't be "women's majors" and "men's majors"*, and there should be greater diversity in these fields. More women in STEM programs/majors/jobs and more men in social/health/youth programs majors.

*I know there are no 'official' women's and men's majors, but our society is structured with such strong gender roles/stereotypes that there's a general understanding that those trends and expectations exist.

This post was edited by Handcuffs on Jun 29 2016 08:37pm