Equal opportunity

Equal opportunity is a descriptive term for an approach intended to give equal access to an environment or benefits, such as education, employment, health care, or social welfare to all, often with emphasis on members of various social groups which might have at some time suffered from discrimination. This can involve the hiring of workers and other such practices. Social groupings generally emphasized in such a way are those delineated by aspects of gender, race, or religion.

Related Topics:
Environment - Education - Employment - Health care - Social welfare - Discrimination - Gender - Race - Religion

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Equal opportunity practices that are race-blind or gender-blind may be distinguished from practices that involve or require affirmative action or reverse discrimination. The United States federal government and various state and local governments require affirmative action in terms of governmental hiring and contracting; many other countries make such action illegal.

Related Topics:
Race-blind - Gender-blind - Affirmative action - Reverse discrimination - United States federal government - Local government

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The method of providing equal opportunity is often a subject of controversy, as is the means by which to measure the success or failure of equal opportunity policies. Opportunity itself is often difficult - if not impossible - to accurately measure. Thus, in practice, equal opportunity is said to exist when people with similar abilities reach similar results after doing a similar amount of work. In other words, equal opportunity is measured by the degree of equality of outcome that it generates. Indeed, equal opportunity and equality of outcome are often seen as complementary. For example, as long as inequalities can be passed form one generation to another through gifts and wealth inheritance, it is unclear that equality of opportunity for children can be achieved without greater equality of outcome for parents.

Related Topics:
Equality of outcome - Generation - Inheritance

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