ABSTRACT
All remedies to inequality must be grounded in the argument that the inequality is illegitimate and unfairly produced. In the United States, the dominant ideology of meritocracy provides a competing explanation that inequality is the result of a fair contest. Against this backdrop, it is difficult for advocates for change to legitimate proposed remedies to inequality. This chapter proceeds in two main parts. In the first part, I set the stage by introducing the idea of meritocracy and the history of quotas. Specifically, I explain the main tenets of meritocracy and the particular romance with this idea in the US. I then briefly summarize how gender and race discrimination remain serious departures from meritocratic promises in organizations, to establish that remedies to inequality remain relevant. I introduce when and how quotas have been invoked as a remedy, and where they have been distorted and polemicized to provoke objections to affirmative action. I close this first part by noting studies that show how quota systems can stigmatize women and people of colour who advance in organizations, both to themselves and to others. Faith in meritocracy obscures the root problems of gender and racial inequality, leaving quotas to look like unfair departures from meritocracy rather than remedies intended to restore meritocracy.
