that pool become less qualified on average (because you fished out better candidates) This rests on the assumption that hiring from a given pool exhausts it. I

that pool become less qualified on average (because you fished out better candidates) This rests on the assumption that hiring from a given pool exhausts it. It seems intuitive that hiring students from a university or bootcamp would have the opposite effect, as would hiring students from a particular academic background, since unemployment/pay metrics and prestige would drive more students there. dishonest as in created to hide the discrimination based on sex Since the clearly stated goal of affirmative action is to hire less of a majority group, it seems more likely that such a policy would be created to prevent imposter syndrome and "my male co-workers think I'm incompetent because of all the diversity hires" syndrome. With such a policy, nobody is a diversity hire.