The NFL’s Rooney rule is almost 20 years old. Beginning in 2003, teams have had to interview at least one non-White candidate for every open head coach position. Since 2020, teams have had to interview at least two such candidates. Although the rule has had almost zero effect — coaches are still overwhelmingly White in a sport that is majority Black — the rule has been branded as a silver bullet and adopted into larger industries, namely the legal and financial industries.
In the legal industry, the Mansfield rule — so-named for the first female attorney in the U.S. — requires that 30% of the candidates for leadership roles are women, attorneys of color, LGBTQ or lawyers with disabilities.
