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White Women Have Benefitted Most From Affirmative Action

Andrew Burton
/
Getty Images

Vox.com reported on an interesting paradox concerning the college admission process known as affirmative action. Since the program’s inception, white women have benefitted more than any other segment of the American population. Yet they are among its most fervent opponents. The irony lies in the fact that the program gained national attention when Abigail Fisher, a white woman from Texas, sued the University of Texas for not allowing her admittance.

After the first two decades of affirmative action in the private sector, a 1995 report found that white women held a majority of managerial jobs compared with African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans. Twenty years later, white women are still benefitting greatly in the era of affirmative action.

Contrary to popular belief, affirmative action isn't just black. It's white, too. But, as Vox notes, “affirmative action's white female faces are rarely at the center of the conversation.