Despite the fact that any President who didn't support it could have abolished it, affirmative action is still a reality of the American workplace. With the support of less than half of the public over many decades, how is it that such a controversial program has managed to survive? Inside Affirmative Action addresses this question.
'Here, at last, is the definitive work on Executive Order 11246. Written from the perspectives of two career Federal civil servants, Inside Affirmative Action presents an unbiased, yet committed, view of the enforcement of contract compliance by the Federal Government. Karin Williamson Pedrick and Sandra Arnold Scham have done a superb job of chronicling the history and potentially tenuous future of Executive Order 11246. This is a book that should be required reading for everyone who has an interest in federal contract compliance to promote and advance equal employment opportunity and affirmative action in American society.'
-Weldon J. Rougeau, Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs during the Jimmy Carter administration (1977-81)
'Karin Williamson Pedrick and Sandra Arnold Scham present a detailed and intuitive description of the evolution of affirmative action and the agency created to administer it in the employment context. It has often been said in the context of federal initiatives that "personnel is policy" and Pedrick and Scham illustrate the key role played by the individuals charged with interpreting and enforcing affirmative action. Both politically appointed and career civil servants have shaped the evolution of affirmative action and made it a critical and enduring feature of American life. Pedrick and Scham describe the fascinating interplay between proponents and opponents and the policy and bureaucratic battles engaged in over the decades. For those interested in understanding "how the sausage is really made," Inside Affirmative Action will present a front row seat as to how a critical component of American life was conceived, given substance and then implemented.'
-Lawrence Lorber, former Director OFCCP, Member Board of Directors, Office of Congressional Compliance, Senior Counsel Seyfarth Shaw
'OFCCP, Executive Order 11246, and Affirmative Action Goals and Timetables may be unfamiliar if you don't work for a major Government contractor. Inside Affirmative Action sheds light on these obscurities, and reveals how they helped to end black jobs and female jobs in the last half of the 20th Century and, for the first time, to include women and African Americans in the mainstream workforce. In this well-researched and readable volume, the authors juxtapose relevant and contextual historical data to tell the story of sex and race-based employment discrimination and its decline in America.'
-James D. Henry, Associate Solicitor for Civil Rights 1973-1999, Office of the Solicitor, U.S. Department of Labor
