# "An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer" does this MEAN anything?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-equal-opportunity-affirmative-action-employer-does-this-mean-anything/386899>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 6, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-equal-opportunity-affirmative-action-employer-does-this-mean-anything/386899 "2007-01-06T02:47:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2007, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-equal-opportunity-affirmative-action-employer-does-this-mean-anything/386899/21 "2007-01-09T18:56:41Z")

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One further anecdote, when we hire for entry level computer operator positions, (the only position I’ve ever been involved on the hiring committee), we always have a woman on the committee, just to help any woman applicants feel a little more at ease during the interview. I believe we did this to help remove barriers like they were talking about above, though we really had very few female applicants.

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**Author:** ![Rusalka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecd19e/32.png) [@Rusalka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rusalka)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-equal-opportunity-affirmative-action-employer-does-this-mean-anything/386899/22 "2007-01-16T12:50:34Z")

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Just as an aside, most people in the animation field are NOT computer geeks first - they are artists first, and then they learn computers as part of their job - same as, say, an administrative assistant. With that in mind, the disparity is a bit baffling.

I read a book once on the making of Antz, and apparently few of the animation artists had touched a graphic arts program or even a computer before signing onto the movie.

I probably should start another thread for this topic.

I once applied for a job in a computer store as a computer technician, and although they needed technicians, they wanted me to teach classes instead. It wasn’t where my experience or interests lay. I wonder how many of those AA statistics take into account the “types” of jobs women are doing…

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