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New South Wales (NSW) was the first state in Australia to introduce a legislative requirement to undertake affirmative action for members of particular target groups in order to achieve equality of opportunity in employment. This requirement was introduced in 1980 as an amendment to the NSW Anti‐ Discrimination Act 1977. Referred to as Part IXa, the amendment required all public service departments and statutory authorities to produce an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Management Plan, setting out strategies by which EEO could be achieved for target group members, and to report annually to the Director of Equal Opportunity in Public Employment (DEOPE) on progress made towards this goal.

In 1990, an academic colleague and I received a small grant to undertake a research project1 relating to the practice of equal opportunity in higher education institutions in one Australian state: New South Wales. We set out to examine Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinators‘ (EEOCs’) perceptions of the effectiveness of EEO and affirmative action in universities and colleges, but we also wanted to document the experiences of these specialist staff in undertaking the difficult job of assisting their organisation to implement strategies to achieve equal opportunity in employment. This paper selects aspects of data contained in interviews with EEOCs which relates specifically to their personal experiences in undertaking EEO work. Although those employed in this field are called by various titles ‐ EEO Officer, EEO Coordinator, Equal Opportunity Coordinator ‐ for the purpose of this paper, and to avoid identification, all staff have been called EEO Coordinators (EEOCs).