Inclusion Policies Have Mostly Benefited White People

Discrimination still runs deep in many areas of our society. It’s unfair, it weakens social cohesion, and it robs us of valuable human potential – something we can hardly afford as advanced countries face demographic decline. Women, along with ethnic and religious minorities and people who don’t conform to mainstream standards of sexuality or appearance, are often the primary targets. This issue focuses on the discrimination faced by women, who have become the main victims of the backlash against inclusion policies, particularly those pushed back overseas. Maybe affirmative action – like gender quotas – has sometimes gone too far. But that doesn’t mean we should undo decades of progress in civil rights. So how do we push back against this rollback and keep moving forward in the fight for gender equality?