Wal-Mart Sex Discrimination Case: Books On The Big Box Retailer

This week, the US Supreme Court considers Wal-Mart's demand to dismiss a 10-year-old sex discrimination suit brought by more than 1,000,000 women. The employees accused Wal-Mart of passing them over for promotion in favor of men and paying them less than men. If it is allowed to proceed, as lower courts have ruled, the women are seeking billions of dollars in back pay.

There's no question that Wal-Mart and other big box stores have changed the shape of retailing in America. Books about the lawsuit and the company cover the full range of emotion from loving the behemoth retailer to absolutely hating it. Let us know what you think by voting in the slideshow below.

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"Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Women's Rights at Wal-Mart" by Liza Featherstone

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This Wal-Mart Book

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

This book was horrible This book was great!

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Top 5 Wal-Mart Books

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Top 5 Wal-Mart Books

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Comments

[groove68]

05:08 PM on 04/01/2011

Other unpleasant side of Wall-Mart: destruction of organic small and mid-sized retail structures in communities

http://www.realeyz.tv/en/micha-x-peled-store-wars-when-wal-mart-comes-to-town_cont3629.html

[Andrew Colyer]

01:01 PM on 04/01/2011

My wife worked for Wal-mart for 14 years and yes she did get paid well but not as well as her male counterparts or males that reported to her. Example a totally incompetent male assistant manger that reported to my wife a co-manager was making twice her salary and how she discovered this he quit and they pay there staff out in cash on the last day she got a fax from the home office showing his annual salary of $105,000.00 she about fail to the floor. Also back when she first went to work for Wal-mart when she became a department manager a male got promoted at the same time and get paid $1 more per hour and somehow he discussed with her, so she asked her manage why he was getting a $1 more per hr and he said because he has a family my wife said I have a family he said well your husband work.

[thrdr]

07:41 AM on 04/01/2011

I've never spent a dime in a Wal-Mart, though I have been dragged into one.
Low-income people shop (and of course work) there, but the majority of Wal-Mart's customers are well-off people with money to spare--habituated consumers who are looking for deals. Americans have become cheap and stingy and ethically insensate over the last quarter-century. Cheap is good--no matter that someone else is basically making up the difference with their hard labor. It doesn't surprise me either that Wal-Mart has proven to be a breeding grown for sexism, agism, racism . . . it's fueled by a mentality that places bullying on a pedestal and decency in the gutter.

[feliznavidad]

03:33 PM on 04/11/2011

I agree. I avoid the place like the plague. Americans have simply forgotten how to shop for quality in anything. It This cheap mentality is one of the trends hurting the small businesses and craftsmen in America.

[joeyfoto]

07:58 AM on 04/17/2011

I had never shopped at WalMart in my life, until I spent six months working in central Florida, where WalMart had driven virtually every other retailer out of business. It's easy to do landmark business when you're the only game in town. The store are ugly, but the customers are colorful...

PS. Where you have a choice of big-box stores, look at CostCo. I'm told, they treat their employees much more fairly...

[opinioned1]

04:32 PM on 03/30/2011

The worst thing to ever happen in retailing was the death of Sam Walton, and the emergence of the greed mongering Walmart we see today.

Walmart has no social conscience and believes it can do anything expedient for its bottom line without incurring any regulatory challenge. We all know Walmart coerces every entity it does business with to march in lock-step with its business agenda, but you can prevent it from monitoring your skivvy use by shopping elsewhere. Walmart has become an economic terrorist organization that's infiltrated our communities with the false dogma of low prices.

[transe]

07:04 PM on 03/30/2011

now i do agree there. walmart was a much different place when sam walton was alive.

[JoeyDee2]

12:40 PM on 03/30/2011

Walmart is the future business model for companies and organizations everywhere: low wages, little if any bennies, and in many cases part-time status, oh and don't forget all the imported Chinese products. Walk through a Walmart and try to find any merchandise labeled "Made in America."

Walmart institutionalizes poverty. But you can't blame the poor for shopping there.

It is the future when it really seems like some perverse resurrection of 19th century labor practices and culture..

[transe]

11:04 AM on 03/30/2011

i do go to walmart, but i always kind of feel dirty when i leave. i've been going to target and kroger mostly. kroger, because it is a union shop and target, because at least it isn't walmart. i just refuse to buy dogfood and laundry stuff at kroger, because it costs too much.

[riverkwai1]

12:03 PM on 03/30/2011

Didn't you know that Target hates gays? Why would you want to support them?

[transe]

01:39 PM on 03/30/2011

well, it's called limited funds, inflation, 2 teenage boys to feed, and i have to be able to buy what i need.

[Bushido08]

05:07 PM on 03/30/2011

Funny you say feel dirty...my wife refuses to go to Walmart saying she doesn't like to be around the clientele. She doesn't care if they are giving stuff away. But she has been known to sneak into Target occassionally. My feeling is you get what you pay for...you buy cheap stuff you have cheap stuff that breaks soon thereafter...pay a little more and you get a better product that MIGHT last longer.

[transe]

07:06 PM on 03/30/2011

yeah, but a giant bag of purina one is a giant bag of purina one anywhere. i can get it for 14 dollars at target as opposed to 20 dollars at kroger. plus target sells 7th generation cleaning products, which are natural and better for the environment.

[SF TKF]

10:48 AM on 03/30/2011

Never been in a Wal-Mart, never will be.

[Tan D Nguyen Nguyen]

11:13 AM on 03/30/2011

You are missing all the fun, check out: peopleofwalmart.com

[Connie Concepcion]

12:48 PM on 03/30/2011

Neither have I, am I'm very proud of it. I don't care how broke I get, I will never go in a Walmart.

[southernoldie]

02:22 PM on 03/30/2011

I do go there, but not a lot. They change things around too much so that you can't find the product you're looking for, and then they think you'll buy something else, I guess. They won't put their diet/health/gluten free products together and it's really maddening to try to find some of them. Try finding rice milk now. Ugh. They've moved it again....almost not worth it, not to mention what they demand of their employees. But they've also helped some people, giving them jobs. A mixed emotion thing, but not the same place as when Sam Walton was alive.