By 1980, only 15 percent of black male workers were laborers or farmers. Women's job gains were stunning. Legislators, judges and regulators displaced unions as the main constraint on employer behavior. The new employment laws addressed new concerns and constituencies. We are regularly reminded that laws are needed.
Ugly things can happen in the workplace.
The trouble with the new employment laws is that they often fail the standard of sensible law. They are unclear, subjective and contradictory. They don't tell people what they can and can't do. Aside from extortion sex for a job or promotion no one can say what it is. As Jonathan Rauch has argued in The New Republic, such loose definitions essentially authorize employers to ignore the First Amendment.