Do DEI quotas ever work on average as promised?
How many examples are there of fields where DEI beneficiaries tend to outperform expectations?
Part of the theory behind disparate impact and DEI privileges is that affirmative action beneficiaries must perform better on the job or in school than objective hiring or admission measures predict, presumably due to shortcomings in metrics like test scores.
You and I know there is a huge amount of data showing that’s normally not true. But are there examples of fields where it does turn out to happen on average?
In most areas, whether professional or academic, once you get to a high enough level, where the organization can’t afford poor picks, affirmative action is allowed to run out.
Consider law.
Michelle Obama got into Whitney Young HS, Princeton U., Harvard Law School, and a prestigious law firm on affirmative action, but it immediately became apparent on the job that she would never ever make partner, and so she moved on into other careers shortly. Law is a serious profession, and law firms take making partner very seriously.
Back in 2020, there was much dismay about this pattern of DEI benefits petering out at the top jobs. So we saw a lot of black women getting promoted to high ranking executive positions, but many of those exemplars who were celebrated during the Racial Reckoning appear to be out the door already.
So, are there fields where those hired via DEI privileges regularly outperform, as predicted by the conventional wisdom?
It seems to me that I once thought of a serious example of a field where that appears to be frequently true, but I can’t remember it now.
Off hand, the only instance I can think of is: running to be a GOP nominee for political office. Here, black candidates tend to do much better than their objectively measured talents would suggest because Republican primary voters like blacks more than blacks like being Republicans, so the small number of GOP blacks get a disproportionate number of nominations.
Of course, a lot of them then crash in the general election.
But it wouldn’t seem impossible for there to exist other callings in which affirmative action beneficiaries really do outperform on the job unbiased measures on average.
But can anybody think of one?
A few years ago I saw the Marriage of Figaro at the SF symphony all the singers were black except Cherubino (a comic pants roll) and Count Almaviva (the villain). I was a little nonplussed since I believed the other rolls were not necessarily chosen by merit. However, it turned out the best production I have seen (out of I think six or seven) and I really enjoyed it. So even if the singers were chosen for DEI reasons they were still awesome.
I have an example! Not sure if there are quotas. Israeli Haredim are mostly Ashkenazi. Non-Haredi Jews are mostly non-Ashkenazi. There are "DEI" initiatives at Haredi integration.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rkj00rvktt
Integration of Haredi women into high-tech in general is on the rise. High-tech attracts ultra-Orthodox women who are looking for high-paying professions, since in most cases they are the breadwinners in the family. According to results of recent assessment tests conducted in schools, the haredi girls also possess the skills: the ultra-Orthodox female students lead in math and in reading skills and are ahead of the secular and state-religious sector; they are also ranked second in sciences, not far behind the secular sector. Thus, if in 2022 there were 1,000 ultra-Orthodox girls who graduated the computer programs, this year, their number will rise to 1,300, and next year's forecast is 1,900; in addition, about 500 female graduates from colleges that grant B.Sc. degrees.
What is less known is that these ultra-Orthodox hi-tech women increasingly integrate into the defense industries and into high-tech systems in the defense arms. About 160 ultra-Orthodox women already work in the high-tech division of the police, also in key positions in development projects and in jobs defined as highly classified. In the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), there are about 120 ultra-Orthodox women in high-tech positions, "and there may actually be more, because we don't label people according to their religious affiliation," says Sivan Hever, who is in charge of "Diversity and inclusion in employment" (hiring employees from diverse populations) at the company.