Affirmative Action Policy in the United States: its impact on women

After offering a generic definition of Affirmative Action, this paper does three things: first, it traces the development of the United States Affirmative Action policy from the issuing of Executive Orders by Presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy and Johnson to its full implementation in the Department of Labour; second, it summarises and evaluates all the Affirmative Action cases decided by the Supreme Court, starting with the Bakke decision; and third, using Census and Department of Labour statistics and secondary sources, the paper considers in what ways Affirmative Action increases opportunities for women. Throughout the paper, Affirmative Action is appreciated for its redistributed thrust.