Workplace discrimination has existed throughout American history. The first national effort to end it began during the Civil War, with the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves, and included constitutional amendments and civil rights laws passed after the war. This effort floundered because societal values hindered enforcement of the laws.

In the 1960s, a second effort to eradicate discrimination began with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Since then, more laws and thousands of agency and court decisions have greatly reduced, but not eliminated, job bias against minorities and women. Today, the accumulated corpus of antidiscrimination law is massive, complex, and controversial where it embodies preferential treatment. But overall, and unlike the reconstruction-era effort, it works. Along with government, corporations are taking many actions—both voluntary and legally mandated—to make progress.

Yet more needs to be done. There is widespread evidence of continuing discrimination. Research on wage gaps, studies of job applications, and the continued existence of many discrimination suits attest to it.