What is Social Equity?
Egalitarianism associated with social equity is “the principle that each citizen, regardless of economic resources or personal traits, deserves and has a right to be given equal treatment by the political system” (Shafritz et al., 2013, p. 433).
Historical Barriers to Social Equality: Slavery
Even though slavery is no longer a reality and has become a part of the shameful past of the United States, its shadow still haunts the American society and defines the relationships between people. In the USA, it emerged when the first African American was brought from Central Africa to Virginia as a slave (Davis, 2015). The Kansas-Nebraska Act passed in 1854 suggested that the population of the identified states should be able to choose between slavery and freedom for African Americans. The social tensions finally lead to the eruption of the Civil War (1861-1864), which resulted in slavery being officially ended in 1865 (Davis, 2015).
History of Social Rights
At the beginning of the 1800s, the Abolitionist movement appeared and was extensively supported by many white people.
Nevertheless, minority populations were relegated to the bottom of the economic ladder through the maintenance of governmental policies which promoted inequality in education and housing. The concept of “separate but equal” was upheld by the Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson case and then dominated in multiple spheres (Ford & King, 2014). The majority population did not believe in social integration but allowed minorities to live their lives without interfering with “white business” (Ford & King, 2014).
Emancipation Proclamation enacted on January 1, 1863, was the first step towards greater social equality. The document and its amendments declared the freedom from slavery (Shafritz et al., 2013). Then, in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court first recognized that the doctrine “separate but equal” should not be present in the system of public education and expressed the idea about racially integrated society and the provision of equal opportunities in Brown v. Board of Education (Ford & King, 2014).
Economic Rights: Employment
Economic rights refer to basic human needs for food and shelter, fair monetary compensation for work, equal opportunities for professional growth, and so on. Affirmative action that first emerged during the Kennedy administration was mainly focused on the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws in the sphere of employment for all minority population groups including women, African Americans, and people with disabilities (Shafritz et al., 2013). As a result, since the end of the 20th century, enterprises and businesses started to pay more attention to inclusion and diversity at the workplace.
Hiring tests, performance ratings, and grievance procedures continue to be widely used to fight against workplace discrimination. However, such phenomena as the “glass wall” and the “sticky floor” often take place in the organizations hindering the professional growth of employees from minority ethnic and demographic population groups.
Gender Discrimination at the Workplace
In the 1960’s, 70% of American women were partially or entirely dependent on males but, by 2009, the representation of women in the US workforce increased up to 34% and became similar to the males’ representation (Shafritz et al., 2013). Moreover, women now have college degrees more frequently than males in the USA (Smilowitz, 2015). Nevertheless, nowadays, about 30% of all managers in the private sector are white men, while women take only 10% of all managerial positions (Dobbin, 2017). Women are also associated with higher poverty rates and receive smaller salaries compared to the US men (Smilowitz, 2015). A high rate of women’s financial dependency and inequality was and remains mainly defined by the traditional division of gender roles − women’s responsibility for childcare and unpaid family work which often become an object of discrimination and largely interfere with women’s independent economic performance.
American Welfare System: Overview
“When the Great Depression began, about 18 million elderly, disabled, and single mothers with children already lived at a bare subsistence level” (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2017). In 1933, 20% of the US children were not provided with sufficient nutrition, proper housing, and medical care (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2017). The National Security Act signed by Roosevelt was one of the first welfare programs in the USA. The modern programs include the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act enacted in 1996, Medicare, etc.
Future Trends
During the end of the 20th century and the beginnings of the 21st, minority achievement gap has decreased in many spheres, e.g., high school graduation rates in white and black populations became almost the same, the number of working women increased, etc. The current improvements can be regarded as a premise for the future progress. Multicultural diversification of the workplace environment will likely remain a trend and will result in smaller gender, age, disability, and racial discrimination rates, as well as sexual harassments and biased professional promotion practices. Positive discrimination will likely remain in force − organizations will set up the objectives of hiring more talented individuals with distinct multicultural backgrounds because a low level of diversification is negatively perceived by the public and, thus, negatively affects the financial performance. The diversification efforts in the private sector will be supported by the current policies enforced at the federal level.
Summary
Social equity implies a fair distribution of welfare and equal delivery of services. Although equality was always an American ideal, such social factors as slavery defined the American welfare system as a pragmatic solution because it had to eliminate the violations of civil and economic rights in a gradual manner. To solve the discrimination issues, the US government enforced numerous policies including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The policies helped to reduce the educational and financial achievement gaps between the majority and minority populations to some extent. The present-day improvements can prompt a virtuous cycle − it is suggested that the minority representation in employment and education will enhance even more over time.
References
Constitutional Rights Foundation. (2017). Bill of rights in action. Web.
Davis, K. C. (2015). In the shadow of liberty: The hidden history of slavery, four presidents, and five Black lives. New York City, NY: Henry Holt and Company (BYR).
Dobbin, F. (2017, April 6). Why diversity programs fail. Human Capital institute. Web.
Ford, D. Y., & King, R. (2014). No blacks allowed: Segregated gifted education in the context of Brown v. Board of Education. The Journal of Negro Education, 83(3), 300-310.
Higginbotham, F. M. (2014). Saving the dream for all. GPSolo, 31(6), 18-21.
HUD public housing program befefits. (n.d.). Web.
Riding freedom: 10 milestones in U.S. civil rights history. (n.d.). Web.
Shafritz, J. M., Russell, E. W., & Borick, C. P. (2013). Introducing public administration. New York, NY: Pearson.
Smilowitz, A. (2015). For U.S. women, inequality takes many forms.Huffpost. Web.