Since its establishment in 1970, the company has suffered several discrimination cases on the grounds of gender in terms of equal pay, recruitment, and promotion.
Discrimination occurs when an employee is being discriminated on the grounds of gender, age, religion, race, nationality, and origin. This mostly happened during the recruitment process, equal wages, promotion and the level of the position. Despite their anti-discrimination policies and other employment legislation in the USA, Walmart has been sued for discriminating female employees on the grounds of equal pay and promotion.
Men and women are equal and have legal rights to have access to employment opportunities. In the United States, the societal norms and values of women are seen as homemakers when it comes to hiring and promotion in the workplace. They are also being judged based on their physical appearance and the way they dress. Women are also being discriminated for not being attractive or on the grounds of their age. Many employers prefer to hire young and pretty women in their workplace. The company prefers to hire women who wear revealing clothing such as skirts for the position of sales and public relations. Many women cannot go above the middle position which is known as ‘glass ceiling’. This suffered for women in terms of promotion.
In spite of making $14.7 billion a year in profit and $482 billion a year in total sales in 2016, Walmart has received several cases of gender discrimination. In 2001, the retailer was alleged by 1.6 million female employees in a legal case for favoring male counterparts in pay and promotion. In 2011, the Supreme Court of Justice stated: “women did not share enough in common to qualify as a class in what would have been the largest class action discrimination suit in history”. The lawsuit continues to be filed for this circumstance.
At that same year, the US Supreme Court had imposed guidelines for actions related to employment discrimination which has been dismissed. A female worker Betty Dukes filed a lawsuit against gender discrimination and low pay and was included in 1.5 million amongst other female employees. She died of heart failure in the month of July at the age of 67.
“The class the plaintiffs now allege is no more appropriate than the nationwide class the Supreme Court has already rejected,” Randy Hargrove, a Walmart spokesman, said in a statement.
“These claims are unsuitable for class treatment because the situation of each individual is so different and because the claims are not representative of the hundreds of thousands of women who work at Walmart.”
In 2017, women still faced gender discrimination and they mentioned that they were denied for giving promotions and were not paid equally in a retail store and managerial positions. Not only is Walmart that suffered lawsuits for gender discrimination, other giant corporations such as Microsoft and Quest Diagnostics also faced the same circumstances. After all, it is illegal to discriminate a worker on the basis of gender, age, race, nationality, psychological barriers, and religion. Companies must have proper employment and gender legislation to avoid discrimination against women and other minorities. This should provide equal opportunities for everyone in society and at the end of the day, they are still humans. So women if you are seeking career opportunities, make sure that you are aware of the employment legislation. If you are being rejected for promotion or recruitment, remember it is not the end of the world, it is just the beginning of your career. Do not feel left out in the company because at the end of the day it is still part of your legal right and you deserve as much respect as men in the society and in the workplace!on
Muhammad Omer Ali
Fatima Bhutta
