All of the firms listed in table 2.3 have affirmative action plans. There is no obvious reason why their utilization of women managers differs so broadly. Many managerial functions are similar from one industry to another, and women are now well represented among business school graduates everywhere in the country. In examining different companies' utilization of African Americans, the proportion of blacks in the population in the areas where the companies have their facilities, shown in the table's last column, must be taken into account. The differences in the utilization of blacks as managers shown in table 2.3 between McDonald's and the other retail businesses listed cannot be explained away that way, however.
Companies differ in their toleration of segregation in their individual limits.
Among one such facility's 116 employees, none were black. Southern New England Telephone Company, on the other hand, had substantial numbers of blacks in all of its facilities in urban centers. Firms have been allowed to do pretty much what they feel like doing. In the private sector, affirmative action has been largely voluntary. Some firms have made progress, but others that have chosen not to do very much have not been called to account.