[philippK]

Reading the entry - it isn't. It's basically the same thing.

What is different in germany, though, is that the discussion here revolves around forcing private sector enterprises to have specific (government set) quota of women in their leadership (or else be punished by the law).

Affirmative action in the US seems to revolve more around not negatively discriminating against women when making hiring decisions, but not forcing government set quotas on companies.

I can't quite imagine the US government interfering with private enterprise in this way.

[roel_v]

"Affirmative action in the US seems to revolve more around not negatively discriminating against women when making hiring decisions,"

Affirmative action is when two people are equally suited for a job/position/benefit, the one from the disadvantaged group (based on sex, ethnic/socioeconomic background, physical impairment, ...) gets it. In more extreme varieties, it means that the one from the disadvantaged group has less strict requirements to fulfill. In a way, a women's quota is a species of the genus affirmative action.