Sex Discrimination at Walmart

Sex Discrimination at Wal-Mart OMM640 Business Ethics and Social Responsibility Dr. : David Britton May 14, 2012 Betty Dukes along with five other women filled a law suit against Wal-Mart Inc. in 2001 for discrimination against women, denying them their raises and also their promotions. Betty Dukes and the other women hope that they can stand for hundreds of thousands of other women who might have been similarly affected by this type of behavior when they were there also. Years later the ladies got the go ahead to represent 1. 6 other women in the case seeking back wages and maybe even punitive damages from Wal-Mart.

This is by far the biggest class action suit against such a huge company and by these ladies getting the go ahead they have to prove to a court that Wal-Mart treated them unfairly. Wal-Mart has denied that such atrocities have ever taken place. If it is found that Wal-Mart did in fact do these things not only would their image ne tarnished, they would also end up paying billions of dollars to these ladies and open a door for other suits to be filed against them for whatever purpose and also sends a message saying no matter how big a company you are you are still going to be held accountable for the way in which you treat people.

That is why laws were established for this precise purpose. Wal-Mart was hoping to have the case dismissed and have all the women file separately which would be easier for them because all of the women filing together would stand to gain millions from them. The financial impact a law suit of this magnitude might have on Wal-Mart would be loss of business, loss of millions of dollars paid to the women and the majority of shoppers that frequent Wal-Mart are women and if they are found to be discriminating against women of course other women will not shop there.

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Them they would have to end up letting go a Lot of people if they don’t have the money to sustain them; companies that supply to them would pull out, and with the criticism they would get would probably destroy the company. Wal-Mart has maintained that they did not discriminate against Betty and the other women that filed claim against, but I believe that Wal-Mart knew exactly what was going on and just chose to ignore Betty when she was making her complaints. They began to take her seriously when she filed the suit.

Some of the moral complaints the women were suing Wal-Mart for was for statistical disparities such female workers were less likely to be paid the proper wages as the men; they were denied promotion in a timely fashion different to those of the men (Boatright, 2009, pg. 199). There was a lot of bias involved with all of this; it even has a hint of gender stereotyping. I believe the moral complaints were justified because Betty made complaints to managers and higher up and because she did this they began to treat her differently and demoted her for not opening a cash register with a penny but for talking.

When it came to promotions opportunities they were not made known, and those that she wanted they kept telling her they were filled and hired male counter parts that were not fit for the position. What made Wal-Mart managers determine what part of the store you worked was based on your gender and that was wrong, not because they were women meant they could not do what was needed. The women by far were more experienced than the men and the stayed longer on the job also.

It was shown based on the records of the trial and brought up in the news that this massive company had so discrepancies that they had to correct as it pertained to the way they treated women. They would first have to start off improving their employment policies and what they are looking for in individual. They have to be an equal opportunity employer and employ People based on their skills and experience on a particular job. Women need to be promoted into management programs just as men do, not showing favoritism to men over women.

They have to allow people to work anywhere in the store as long as they can do the job and not putting them in whatever department they think they should be in. Develop a program that teaches all employees about diversity in the work place and place emphasis on respecting women and treating them fairly. Starting an affirmative program would be to the benefit of the company, they have to learn that women are priced just as highly as men and the way they. For women with kids it is hard for them to work as they would because they have no child care and this is something that Wal-Mart must put in place.

Proper compensation for the work being done and it should be equal pay for both parties involved. Training programs for employees that want to advancement and how to work with each other. In conclusion I would have to say it would have been a good luck for the women to win that discrimination law suit against Wal-Mart Inc. I am actually surprised at the outcome but I understand it. None the less Betty Duke allowed the world to see Wal-Mart for who they really are and allowed them to see that they were treating women unfairly and they now have the opportunity to reevaluate the way they do things.

Women have the right to be treated fairly and equally and also have the right to be paid and promoted just as any man. The law suit also opened up the eyes of all the other companies that were watching with a keen interest. References: Boatright, J. (2009). Ethics and the conduct of business (6th Ed) Upper Saddle River, NJ Prentice Hall Emily Friedman, April 16, 2010, Appeals Court Rules Wal-Mart Sex Discrimination Case Can Go to Trial Retrieved May 14, 2014 from http://abcnews. go. com/WN/Business/wal-mart-sex-discrimination-case-trial/story? d=10480510 Wal-Mart sex-bias case could have wide impact Retrieved May 14, 2012 from http://www. msnbc. msn. com/id/42250811/ns/business-careers/t/wal-mart-sex-bias-case-could-have-wide-impact/ Wal-Mart Wins Request in Bias Case Retrieved May 15, 2012 from http://www. blackchristiannews. com/news/2009/02/wal-mart-wins-request-in-bias-case. html Betty. V Goliath Retrieved May 15, 2012 from http://walmartwatch. com/wp-content/blogs. dir/2/files/pdf/dukes_backgrounder. pdf

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