Equal opportunity is a descriptive term for an approach intended to give equal access to an environment or to ensure people are not specifically excluded from participating in society, such as education, employment, 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 buisness 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. Inequalities are passed form one generation to another through education, genes, gifts, and wealth inheritance,social darwinism is inherent in society. It is clear that equality of opportunity is an unachievable ideal in practice as it is not human nature to pursue equality.

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 based is also based on mutable traits this invokes social justice programs such as affirmative action or positive discrimination. See; socialism, communism.

See also

• Equal Opportunity Employment
• Universal access
• Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (Australia)
• Equal Opportunities Commission (UK) - gender equality
• Disability Rights Commission (UK)
• Commission for Racial Equality (UK)
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (US)
• Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (US)
• Equal Opportuinity (New Brunswick)
• Asset-based egalitarianism
• U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

External links

• United Kingdom
  • World Bank Doing Business project
  • UK Governmen Women & Equality Unit
• United States
  • U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (US) - the branch of the U.S. government that enforces equal opportunity laws in workplaces.
  • 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
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Equality of Opportunity
  • Equal Opportunities International (established in 1982, a journal by Emerald Press)

Discrimination | Social justice | Disability rights

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