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Affirmative action is a term used to describe federal initiatives that require people responsible for providing economic and educational opportunities to consider a candidate’s race, sex, or disability, especially if the individual’s minority affiliation has suffered past discrimination. Affirmative action was implemented with the idea and hope that America would finally become truly equal. The tensions of the 1960’s civil rights movement had made it very clear, that the nation’s minority and female population were not receiving equal opportunities. Affirmative action has been the subject of increasing debate and tension in American society. Affirmation action also has the nation’s most ambitious attempt to redress the issues of racial and sexual discrimination. The history of affirmative action has its roots in the Civil Right Act of 1964. In Title VII of the Civil Rights Act it provides the initial legal basis for affirmative action for women in the workplace. In our society, there has always been affirmative action in higher education, but for many years it operated to exclude, rather than include, women and people of color (Gandy 2003). Since the Civil Rights Movement began, there have been policies and pr