From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpositive discriminationˌpositive discrimiˈnation noun [uncountable] British English SCLBEthe practice of giving a particular number of jobs, places at university etc to people who are often treated unfairly because of their race, sex etc SYN affirmative action American English
Examples from the Corpus
positive discrimination• The report did not call for positive discrimination but suggested that male, old-school attitudes still prevailed in hospitals.• Inevitably it will include strong elements of positive discrimination.• This was a form of positive discrimination in favour of locals.• There may have been reasons for this lack of positive discrimination towards the older conurbations.• Even with a more aggressive policy of positive discrimination, it is doubtful whether geographical inequalities can be overcome.• The caste system, he says, will never be abolished by social reform or positive discrimination in favour of Untouchables.• This suggests positive discrimination in favour of older people.• There were, however, a number of variables other than positive discrimination policies, which accounted for this relationship.From Longman Business Dictionarypositive discriminationˌpositive discrimiˈnation (also reverse discrimination)HUMAN RESOURCES when one group of people are treated more favourably than another, often because they have been treated unfairly in the pastShe is totally opposed to positive discrimination in favour of women. → discrimination 