Going Back to the class discussion about "Is Wal-Mart discriminating against women?", I did not get to talk during the discussion do to my own shyness so now I want to share my opinion. What bothered me about the article "Patriarchy at the Check-Out Counter" were a couple of the graphs. A couple of the graphs were dated for only one year, yet the whole arguement was; "Was Wal-Mart discriminating against women over the course or several years not just one." The graph clearly showed that women were being payed less than women. Some of the pay differences were a bit extreme, but just as a curiosity i would like to see if this trend continues.
My opinion on the whole thing is that Wal-Mart at the higher levels were not discriminating, but at regional and or local levels discrimination was obvious. Even though I am curious to see where the higher up positions get their pay checks because the Men and women who were Regional Vice-Presidents had big difference in pay. Women made significantly less then men. Without a good reason for this difference points to discrimination against women at the higher levels of Wal-Mart as well as the lower level positions.
I think that the article did a good job showing how the plaintiffs felt discriminated against, between both the personal stories and statistical graphs. There is an obvious salary difference between men and women at all levels of the company. I do not, however, feel that this should not have been a case action lawsuit. There is not enough evidence to show that Wal-Mart discriminates against women except a few numbers that could have been manipulated to draw more support on one side. I think that the women should have voiced their problems more before turning it into a lawsuit and should have focused more on individual lawsuits rather than a case action suit that supposedly incorporates all women within the time period of employment.
ReplyDeleteFrom my understanding with the graph we looked at in class, the pay levels showed women were being paid less all around. While it was obvious that they were being paid a LOT less at the higher levels of employment with Wal-Mart. This means I disagree with your statement about discrimination being obvious at low levels. I think the opposite.
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