What is Positive Discrimination?

Positive discrimination - a blessing making the world more diverse or a curse upholding prejudice?

• For good or for worse, many organisations, both public and private, have embraced some form of positive discrimination in recent years, be it in recruitment, funding or training.
• The term means treating one person more favourably than another because they have a protected characteristic, which is illegal in many countries due to equality laws.
• Some exceptions can apply however, for instance in the case of disability, and occasionally it can be argued that it is required.
• What is allowed however is positive or affirmative action: efforts by an employer or organisation to assist protected groups which are disadvantaged or underrepresented in a particular field.
• Such schemes are usually implemented to tackle intra-organisational ‘unconscious bias’ among recruiters, who may favour a group of people with certain characteristics over another.
• Critics of positive discrimination say favouring certain applicants for reasons other than merit is discrimination full stop, and can in fact undermine the reputation of underrepresented groups.
• Proponents of such schemes claim that no other strategies have worked to achieve more diversity and inclusion in organisations, and insist they don’t undermine meritocratic selection processes.
• Indeed, a recent Swedish study found that gender quotas actually increased the competence of politicians by leading to the displacement of mediocre men - whether as candidates or leaders.
• Particularly competitive industries, such as journalism, publishing, fashion and other entertainment industries, but also the legal profession and politics, have triggered big debates about this.
• And huge protests about racial inequality over the past two years have led to a survey in the US which found that nearly every company (98%) considered “diversity recruiting” a “top priority in 2021”.