An objective analysis of disparate impact & its effects on age & gender discrimination - Research Paper Example

Disparate impact can also be said to have occurred on the event that the non-protected groups seem to be favored by a policy than the protected groups, without a clear justification of such an occurrence. Additionally, disparate impact is observed to have occurred, in a situation where there was an alternative avenue that would have been exploited to enhance the equal treatment of the minority/protected members to their non-protected group members, but the avenue was not applied. However, the difference in the research perspectives was that the intentions of protecting against disparate impacts might interfere with the institutional means of achieving its objectives (Kaminshine, 2005).

The similarities and differences in perspectives are affected by the research in that; the laws protect individuals against intentional discrimination, which is different from disparate impact discrimination, resulting from the application of a neutral policy without any intention of causing discrimination. Therefore, it can only be declared unlawful by the application of statutes and regulations (Grover, 1996). . is that, factors such as height, which are likely to lock out more women than men should be avoided in the recruitment process, since they will cause sex-based disparate impact discrimination (Kaminshine, 2005).

Additionally, the application of recent factors in the recruitment process, such requiring for a qualification that is not older than a given number of years should also be avoided since the recent factors are likely to cause age-based discrimination. For example, on the event that an organization is recruiting using a certain period qualification, it might end up locking out the members of a certain age group, who may have develop a need for a job, for example a bereaved spouse, who needs a job to continue supporting the family, after the death of her husband.

This is likely to cause age-based discrimination (Grover, 1996). The application of the disparate-impact approach impacts positively on the society, through providing an equal opportunity to all, without discriminating on the basis of gender, race or age. However, the adverse effect of this approach is that it seeks to align the end results with the demographics, which is detrimental in that, it would result to the application of the quota system by institutions, which is yet another unfair practice (Kaminshine, 2005).

There are various disparate impact theories which include: Discriminatory Purpose Theory is a theory that addresses the issue of proving purposeful discrimination, where the complainant has the sole duty of proving that the discrimination that occurred against him/her was purposeful (Pamela, 1991). The complainant also has the duty to show that there were other alternative avenues which could have been exploited to guard against such discrimination, but they were not applied. Fault Theory