Ever have the desire to go back to the good old days of rampant on-the-job, in-your-face sex discrimination? Then go to work at Wal-Mart where every outdated beyond the pale gender stereotype appears to be routinely used by male managers to keep women in our 'place.' This month the Supreme Court will decide if women can proceed with the class action sex discrimination suit against Wal-Mart or if women must sue one case at a time. Here's a taste of what women who work at Wal-Mart are subjected to:Detrix Young, a Wal-Mart employee in Aiken, South Carolina, reports that she sat in a store-wide meeting where one of her female co-workers asked why the men in the store earned more than the women. One of the male managers answered that "men are working as the heads of their households, while women are just working for the sake of working." . .
In St. Petersburg, Florida, Ramona Scott reports that her store manager explained that men at Wal-Mart made more than women because "Men are here to make a career and women aren't. Retail is for housewives who just need to earn extra money." In Riverside, California, Stephanie Odle testified that her District Director of Operations explained an apparent gender-based pay inequality by saying that the man in question "supports his wife and his two kids;" her store manager in a Sacramento Sam's Club (a division of Wal-Mart) explained women's unequal pay by saying "Those girls don't need any more money; they make enough as it is." . .
Tammy Hall says her male store manager explained to another male manager in Alabama, all women should be "at home with a bun in the oven" and "barefoot and pregnant." . . And women including Geanette Bell of Pontotoc, Mississippi, report that managers assumed they wouldn't "want to be in the Management Training Program" (despite her inquiries) because they would not want to relocate their children.
Alix McKenna declares that she was told by a manager in Lawrence, Kansas, that she could not be promoted to manage sporting goods because she wouldn't "want to work with guns." And Joanne Jaso, a single mother in Bakersfield, California, reports that her store manager refused to consider her for a promotion to a job in electronics because the job was "a man's job" that required "a lot of heavy lifting."
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