Since we've stumbled onto the topic of....

Affirmative Action, let's talk for a moment about Equal Opportunity and Treatment, and where, outside of the educational arean, Affirmative Action is in play.

Pretend for a moment that you're a business owner who has just started a new operation and you need to hire 20 employees.  You've advertised your openings and you have received a number of resumes.  You're going to start interviewing on Monday.  What are your obligations under the laws regarding Affirmative Action?

None, unless you're a business that has government contracts of some type.  As a government contractor or subcontractor, if those contracts are above a certain level you must comply with Affirmative Action in how you hire.  But if you don't have those contracts, you have no obligations under this particular program.

But hold on a moment.  You still have to provide equal opportunity and treatment, and you can't discriminate against any potential employee based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, age, and more.  Some states have laws that prevent you from discriminating based on sexual orientation as well.  In fact, some states actually have laws protecting smokers from being discriminated against on the job.  Back in 2010 there were 29 such states (I haven't tracked it lately). 

The problem?  Proving discrimination in hiring or employment is difficult.  If a restaurant hires only men as servers and you can show there is a history of such hiring and staffing, and women who apply for these positions are routinely told "thanks but no thanks", a woman might be able to make a case for discrimination.  But there is another little "catch" that can come into play.  The BFOQ.

BFOQ is an acronym for Bona Fied Occupational Qualification.  Let's go to a specific case.  There's a new chain of sports bars spreading rapidly across the U.S., the Tilted Kilt.  They hire women, put them in uniforms that are quite revealing and no man will ever get a job as a "Tilted Kilt Girl".  The EEOC has ruled that being female is a BFOQ for the Hooters chain regarding its Hooters Girls, and the same ruling would apply to Tilted Kilt as well.  Apparently these women aren't just servers, they are also considered to be "entertainers".

But there is no BFOQ at any current restaurant where men are the only ones hired to be servers.  Now if someone were to open a "Chippendale" type restaurant where male "beefcake" was the attraction to try to get women in as customers, that would constitute a BFOQ.

So we have this great set of laws about equal opportunity and treatment.  Then why does discrimination go on so rampantly?  Because most of the actual discrimination in employment is so subtle and employers have learned how to get away with doing what they want to do, it becomes almost impossible to prove discrimination.

There is no easy answer.  But at least progress is being made in government hiring, and hiring by firms that have contracts with the government.