Wow, as early as that. My friend Steve Brule remembers being at Dow Chemical in 1984 when they announced their new affirmative action policies. He remembers everyone being in disbelief, half-wondering if it was even legal. Everyone thought it would be for only a couple of years. So much for that!

In his extraordinary book *The Pursuit of Division: Race, Gender, and Preferential Hiring in Canada* (1998), Martin Loney traces it back into the 1970s. That's a full two generations of men, and white men in particular, shut out of opportunities--and expected to take it. And they mostly have, even looking on the bright side, as you've done.