Just about everyone has heard of affirmative action these days, but just what is it, really? Is it something only minorities really benefit from? Is it really as controversial as some people seem to think? Affirmative action is a term people use, but what it really means can be very misleading. .

             The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines affirmative action as "positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded" ("Affirmative Action"). "Positive steps" can mean many things, but here, they are meant to mean that women and minorities should enjoy the same rights and opportunities that anyone else in this country enjoys. It sounds simple, and it was meant to be simple, but the entire idea of affirmative action has become very controversial. .

             Affirmative action was not a widely used term until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed into legislation. The term was associated with the Act, but still was not very common. It really came into use in the 1970s, when the American Secretary of Labor finally fully defined who was affected by the ruling, and what businesses, institutions, and educational facilities had to do to implement affirmative action and ensure women and minorities had the same rights as anyone else in the "system." This is when the term began to become controversial, because many people began to see affirmative action as a kind of quota system, that forced businesses and education to admit certain numbers of women and minorities, even if they were not as qualified as other applicants. The Stanford Encyclopedia continues, "Affirmative action, if it did not impose preferences outright, at least countenanced them" ("Affirmative Action"). Therefore, affirmative action became increasingly controversial and disliked by many people.

             Results, Effects, and Uses: Discuss the consequences and uses of the subject.