Equal Opportunity

Equal opportunity is the goal of laws, regulations, and policies attempting to ensure that similarly situated people are treated equally in virtually all aspects of life, including jobs, education, housing, public accommodations, and so forth. The United States has a long and difficult history regarding equality based on race, gender, ethnicity, and other characteristics. Women, blacks, Native Americans, Asians, Jews, gays, the differently abled, and others were variously denied the right to vote, not given equal pay for equal work, not allowed to have certain jobs, denied access to equal education, and denied access to public facilities and generally did not enjoy the same rights to pursue the same quality of life as white males. In an effort to live up to the statement in the Declaration of Independence that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the U.S. Congress has passed laws guaranteeing its citizens an equal opportunity to receive the basics determined [Page 768]to be part of a civilized and humane democratic society: housing, education, employment, voting, public accommodations, and receipt of federal funds. Equal opportunity encompasses a set of laws that are an attempt to rid the country of the effects of its history of denying equality based largely on immutable characteristics such as race, gender, or ethnicity.

The primary vehicle for providing equal opportunity is the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There are also other major laws providing equal opportunity on the basis of age or disability. States also have equal employment laws that by and large track those of the federal government, though some states have added other categories, such as affinity orientation, marital status, or political affiliation. The major equal opportunity laws are reviewed here.