I think what's getting lost in this discussion is that Affirmative Action isn't a trigger for "hire a woman over the more qualified man". All it mandates is th

I think what's getting lost in this discussion is that Affirmative Action isn't a trigger for "hire a woman over the more qualified man". All it mandates is that if on paper two candidates are equal scores, your process should pick the female/minority candidate. Historically, if you left it up to people in the organisation they'd go with their "gut" feelings and pick whomever was of a similar background to them. If two candidates aren't equal, you always pick the better candidate.