Under President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s, an executive order was issued to apply for contracts to solve the problem in political, economic and education. This seemed to affect minorities and also women in employment at that time. In response to the civil rights movement, President John F. Kennedy created a Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity in 1961 and issued Executive Order 10925, which used the term "affirmative action" to refer to measures designed to achieve non-discrimination. .
In 1964 after this term was coined, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act increased the authority of affirmative action agents to institute quotas and preferential hiring to increase representation of minorities and to ameliorate discrimination. It not only prohibited discrimination on grounds of race, age, religion, and national origin but also on grounds of sex. And since, the affirmative action programs focused on minority groups that were determined by the federal government such as: Asian or Pacific Islander-Persons having origins in any of the original people of the far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, or the Pacific Islands. This area includes: China, Japan, Korea, Philippine Islands, and Samoa. Black (not of Hispanic Origin), Hispanic such as Mexican, Cuban., American Indian: people of North America. .
In 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson issued Executive Order 11246, which required federal contractors to take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees treated without discrimination, a definition similar to that in Executive Order 10925. In 1967, President Johnson issued Executive Order 11375, which included sex along with race as an illegitimate basis of discrimination. The core principle of affirmative action is that of requiring "something more" of employers in order to overcome prior discrimination. In 1968, gender was added to the protected categories.