affirmative action

noun

|Updated on: 10 Jun 2018

Definition of affirmative action

: an active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women

sought to achieve a multicultural staff through affirmative action

; also : a similar effort to promote the rights or progress of other disadvantaged persons

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Recent Examples of affirmative action from the Web

Organizing on the social media platform WeChat, Chinese immigrants mobilized in 2014 to kill legislation that would have resurrected affirmative action at California universities.

— vivian yee, New York Times, "Democrats Hope Asian-American Influx Will Help Turn Orange County Blue," 3 June 2018
In 1996 came Proposition 209 outlawing affirmative action, and then two years later Proposition 227 restricted bilingual education in public schools.

— moni basu, CNN, "Blue state, red valley: In this part of California, a new generation is more woke than ever," 1 June 2018
This could create difficulty for Mahathir's government on any attempt to pare back a decades-old affirmative action policy that favors Malays in government contracts, business, jobs, education, and housing.

— eileen ng, The Christian Science Monitor, "New Malaysian government offers hope for simmering ethnic tensions," 23 May 2018
Preserving Malay privileges enshrined in a decades-old affirmative action program that favors them in jobs, education and contracts is the top priority for many ethnic Malays, who account for two-thirds of the population.

— Fox News, "A guide to Malaysia's general election on Wednesday," 8 May 2018
The lawsuit says Auburn failed to follow its policy of clearing the hiring of the new associate director with the university's affirmative action office.

— mike cason, AL.com, "Former Auburn basketball player Cameron Boozer sues university," 2 May 2018
Only federal contractors with 50 or more workers are required to use affirmative action plans when hiring.

— robert d. atkinson, WSJ, "Stop Propping Up Small Business," 6 Apr. 2018
Back in 2003, for instance, the court was considering a big affirmative action case concerning the admissions plan at the University of Michigan Law School.

— CNN, "Supreme Court hears from all corners of the country ahead of travel ban case," 24 Apr. 2018
Jackson has been a longtime critic of affirmative action.

— michael gordon, charlotteobserver, "Feds want to know: Did NC college discriminate against a student because she's white? | Charlotte Observer," 18 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'affirmative action.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of affirmative action

1961

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

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Other Government and Politics Terms

agent provocateur, agitprop, autarky, cabal, egalitarianism, federalism, hegemony, plenipotentiary, popular sovereignty, socialism