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'affirmative action' (sometimes 'positive action', 'positive discrimination') per the title is exactly that - discriminating the 'other' way to try to balance the scales as it were.

(I'm not saying it's good, personally I think it's a bad approach to a good goal. Would likely never be in my favour though, so pinch of salt etc.)

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It's going to work initially, but I've never seen it have the clause that 'this will result in equality once we hit the correct percentages' or that 'AA will finish at this point' because that second stage is difficult and will rip off the band-aid.

Isn't that illegal when it comes to hiring employees?

Of course that varies by jurisdiction, but yes the UK, EU states, and US have a (variously termed) concept of 'protected characteristics' that cannot be considered in hiring.

I agree with you, I don't see how affirmative action is compatible with it, whatever one's thoughts on it, but it seems to be an area nobody's wanted to touch. (Consider that you'd have to be the non-marginialised, thinking yourself wrongfully not-hired. Hard to imagine - in the UK - political appetite for it as a state lawsuit or regulation.) I wouldn't be surprised to see it blow up at some point though.

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