Women's opinion toward Affirmative Action Policies : the role of Education and Type of Policy

The present research examined the relationship between level of education and favorability toward affirmative action’s policies targeted on women, in a female Albanian sample. The theoretical approaches of Social Identity Theory lead our interest in the investigation of the role of (a) type of affirmative action policies (b) the importance of one’s professional career and (c) the importance of professional career for women in general in this relationship. The results confirmed our hypothesis of a mediator effect of the importance of one's professional career in the relationship between participant's level of education and favorability toward the affirmative action policies, but not the hypothesis concerning the mediator effect of the importance given to professional career of women in general in this relationship. Accordingly it was found that, highly educated women, compared to less educated ones, give stronger importance to their personal careers and are more favorable toward the meritocratic policies while they are less in favor of the strong affirmative action policies, like quota hiring and strong preferential treatment