The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 (Public Law 92-261) instituted the federal Equal Employment Opportunity program, which is designed to ensure fair treatment to all segments of society without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, or sex. The goal of this law and program is to make discrimination in employment illegal. Equal Employment Opportunity programs include affirmative action for employment as well as processing of and remedies for discrimination complaints. All employees, including supervisors, managers, former employees, and applicants for employment, regardless of grade level or position, are covered under this legislation. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, which amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include public employees, granted enforcement authority to the Civil Service Commission (now the Office of Personnel Management) to ensure nondiscrimination in human resources actions and to establish affirmative employment measures.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) means fair treatment in employment, promotion, training, and other personnel actions without regard to the previously mentioned factors. The main misconception about the EEO is that it applies is only to selected groups, but the EEO

applies to everyone because it is the law. However, the EEO program is not a guarantee of employment for anyone. Under the EEO law, only job-related factors can be used to determine whether an individual is qualified for a particular job.

The development of the EEO policies and laws can be dated back to the Civil Rights Act of 1883, which prohibited political favoritism in federal employment. In 1940, Executive Order 0948 prohibited discrimination in federal agencies based on race, creed, or color. In 1961, Executive Order 10955 required that positive steps be taken to eliminate workplace discrimination in agencies. The next landmark influencing equal employment opportunity was the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which prohibited the payment of different wage rates to workers for substantially similar work on the basis of sex. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, or national origin and established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), was another very influential piece of legislation for the EEO movement. Executive Order 11246 in 1965 was also influential because it named the process for achieving equal employment opportunity—affirmative action. Other important milestones were Executive Order 11375 in 1967, which prohibited discrimination based on sex and required affirmative action employment to help women, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, which prohibited discrimination against persons between the ages of 40 and 70. The final piece of legislation that influenced the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 was Executive Order 11478 of 1969, which mandated that equal employment opportunities be a part of every aspect of human resources policy and practice in the employment, development, advancement, and treatment of civilian employees of the federal government.

In addition to the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, two other pieces of legislation dealing with equal employment opportunities have been passed. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1995 is one of these more recent laws. This act prohibits discrimination on fourteen grounds: (1) impairment, (2) marital status, (3) political belief or activity, (4) race, (5) religion, (6) sex, (7) societal status as a person,(8) age, (9) role in business dealings, (10) lawful sexual activity, (11) physical features, (12) pregnancy, (13) position or past positions held as employment, and (14) association with a person who is identified by reference to any of the thirteen other listed grounds. The act also prohibits sexual harassment, which applies to both employers and employees. The other piece of legislation dealing with equal employment opportunity is the Further Amendment to Executive Order 11478, Equal Employment Opportunity in the Federal Government. The order provides a uniform policy for the federal government to use in prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal civilian work force, in addition to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, physical disabilities, or age for which discrimination is prohibited in Executive Order 11478.