Working at Wal-Mart Is a Women’s Issue
Wal-Mart has released its Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filing for this year. The AP reports:
Women accounted for 60 percent of the overall work force, 39 percent of officers and managers and 75 percent of sales workers.
This should be recognized as making a virtue out of necessity. Retailing is generally a low-wage job and, unfortunately, most low wage jobs in America are filled by women. As the story goes on to explain:
Total female employment of 60 percent compared to 63 percent in retail and 48 percent nationwide.
Therefore, Wal-Mart bragging about the number of women it employs is a lot like McDonald’s bragging about how it employs so many teen-agers.
Nobody has accused Wal-Mart of discriminating against women in hiring, the alleged discrimination at Wal-Mart has come during women’s employment, especially in promotion. Let’s go to depositions in the largest class action suit in U.S. history to illustrate this point. Here’s Kim McLamb:
Several times throughout my career at Wal-Mart, I complained that women working in the same job as men made less than the men. On three such occasions in 1993, while I was the personnel manager, three different male assistant managers – Lee Earle, Adam Harbach, and Dee Taylor – each told me that the reason why men made more than women was that the men “had families to support.†No other response to my complaints were ever made.
[emphasis added]
Here’s Ramona Scott:
Sometime in 1993, I sought approval for a merit raise for a female cashier, but the Store Manager, Gary Currens, denied my request. I responded that men were making more than women and asked why that was the case. Mr. Currens replied: “Men are here to make a career and women aren’t. Retail is for housewives who just need to earn extra money.”
[emphasis added]
Here’s Claudia Renati:
Mr. Goodwin then asked me if I could stack 50-pound bags of dog food. When I told him I could not repeatedly lift 50 pounds, he told me there was nothing he could do for me because, before I could become a manager, I would have to be Floor Team Leader and that requires stacking 50-pound bags of dog food. I know of several males, including Mr. Hasley and Mr. Jensen who never had to become Floor Team Leader and stack 50-pound bags of dog food before going into management. I had also never seen any written job description with this lifting requirement nor do I believe that one exists. I believe that this was an excuse for keeping me from advancing.
You can find many more horror stories here.
Wal-Mart’s filing is useful only because it reminds us that working at Wal-Mart is a women’s issue. Just like on the emergency contraception issue, the company has much more to do for it to be giving women the respect they deserve.
Wal-Mart has several issues that I’m not fond of–like hiring illegal…oh, exucuse me, undocumented workers. Also, they’re giving all their employees as a whole the shaft health insurance-wise. I started boycotting at the first of the year. I got to every little dime and discount store, or even their main competition, Target, to keep from going there. I haven’t set foot in the new Supercenter built in my town, and I don’t plan to–ever.
[...] In the world of work, AldeaMB writes that the sexism she experiences daily can’t be made up for with flowers on Secretary’s Day. Diary of a Freak Magnet tells how she handles unwanted familiarity with humor. Jonathon Reese explains why wages and lack of promotion at Wal-Mart is a women’s issue. Annalee Newitz writes of how the crowd at Slashdot reduced comments on her article to a debate about her looks. (Be sure to follow the link to her column on Alternet on the same issue.) I Blame The Patriarchy identifies the sexism of Roller Derby. In a broader note, KC Sheenan explains why world economic justice is a feminist issue. [...]