The history of humanity contains many examples of injustice, such as slavery, racism, sexism, and others. To build a better world, people have to learn from their mistakes and attempt to avoid them in the future. Social equity became an inseparable feature of modern society’s vision in this context. Consequently, the concept of equal opportunity was developed to address discrimination issues and ensure social equity.
The quality of an individual’s life directly depends on his self-realization, improvement, and personal growth. If this is denied without the explicit justification of particular reasons, it can be considered discrimination. Discrimination is a special attitude toward an individual because of prejudices, preferences, or specific artificial barriers (Mason, 2018). On the contrary, equal opportunity (EO) implies that individuals should be treated equally no matter their age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, or other associated factors (Mason, 2018). EO can be applied to all aspects of life in society, for example, to employment.
A common situation in the hiring process is that an employer prefers not to hire young female individuals who do not yet have children. A certain logic is behind such preference, although it can hardly be considered fair – an employer does not want to deal with a woman’s possible pregnancy. Maternity leave is a common practice, although employers might not be satisfied with the perspective of having to financially cover an employee’s absence, keeping the job position, and looking for a temporal substitution.
Issued in 1964, Title VII of the civil rights act covers every type of discrimination, including discrimination by sex. According to equal employment opportunity, every employee or job applicant has to be protected against discrimination. Thus, if a female individual feels denied a job opportunity due to the employer’s attitude to her possible pregnancy, she can apply to the Equal employment opportunity commission (EEOC) and ask for an investigation (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). The law also makes it illegal for the employer to retaliate the discrimination accusation, thus ensuring the individual’s future protection.
EO serves as a shield for individuals against social injustice in the form of discrimination. Protected by federal laws and institutions, such as EEOC, in case of issues in the workplace, EO ensures that people are treated as fair as possible with no regard to their specific unique features. Consequently, people have much more freedom when it comes to self-expression, improvement, and achievement of their personal goals.
References
Mason, A. (2018). Social justice: The place of equal opportunity. In R. Bellamy & A. Mason (Eds.), Political concepts (pp. 28-40). Manchester University Press.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (n.d.). U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Web.