About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

10 Critical Soc. Pol'y 5 (1990)

handle is hein.journals/critsplcy10 and id is 1 raw text is: Equal opportunities policy and race equality PETER GIBBON Abstract T74s p r looks at the background and content of EOPs and at the 4behitd themMtheinzmmes the existing literature on them before reportmIg some resea -iindings from a study of 'equal opportunity emnployers OEsconducted in Sheeld in 19 Finally, it examines the pa&/ ipd ficton of a critdviw of EOPtand sdjgestra' new strategy twad dhemk for esp' onsible f ntersta boies-d The paper, is, wrten fm the perspective of how to promote equalty of employmen outcomes, i equitablesharesofemplaoymtforcurrentlydisadvantaged groups, within ,the constrain ofBritish law EOPS - BACKGROUND, CONTENT AND ASSUMPTIONS 'Equal opportunities policies' (EOPs) have been in fashion with a variety of institutional and business interests in the UK for most of the 1980s. In essence they amount to selling rationalised bureaucratic methods of selection and recruitment to capitalist enterprises and to disadvantaged groups in terms of their benefits to both sets of interests. In the first instance it is useful to distinguish between factors involved in the promotion of EOPs and factors involved in their adoption. The promotion of EOPs in Britain may be seen as the product of coin- cidence of a number of trends. Firstly, and most significantly there is the increasing scale and volume of organised and semi-organised protest by groups excluded from or disadvantaged in the labour market. Most notable here has been protest and campaigning by black people (exemplarised by the uprisings of the early 1980s) and by women. Protest and campaigning by the disabled, gays and lesbians and people on Economic League lists have also been increasingly evident. Secondly, there is the preference of Conservative governments since 1979 for voluntaristic and business-led 'solutions' to problems of disadvantage, rather than compulsory and state-led ones. This is reflected positively in the ideology of 'active citizenship' and negatively in general governmental disparagement and undermining of the set of legal and institutional instruments for dealing with disadvantage established by Labour governments in the 1960s and 1970s. Thirdly, there are efforts by the Commis- sion for Racial Equality (CRE) and Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) 5

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most