What Does Discrimination Against Women Sound Like?

Do female employees of Walmart have the right to bring a class action lawsuit charging that the company discriminated against them in awarding pay increases and promotions? That’s a question the U.S. Supreme Court (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc v. Dukes) will be hearing on March 29.

As part of the lawsuit, lawyers have collected statements from more than one hundred women detailing what they were told by Walmart managers.

Here are a few samples that the National Women’s Law Center has noted:

Women’s family responsibilities interfere with work responsibilities; they “should be at home with a bun in the oven”[14] instead of working.

Women can’t handle certain jobs—and can’t work in certain “traditionally male” departments—because those positions are “a man’s job”[20-]  or “need[]a  man.[21]

One woman testified that she “overheard [the] Store Manager… telling another male assistant manager that all women should be ‘at home with a bun in the oven’ and ‘barefoot and pregnant.’”

Learn more about the lawsuit and the obstacles facing female employees of Walmart.