Question

1. Wal-Mart cases, some might argue that the discrimination that took place was isolated and enacted by a handful of misdirected or bad managers. Do you believe that the discrimination was more systemic than this?
2. What actions should be taken by both companies to limit the possibility of discrimination in the future?

Answer 1

The world’s largest retailer has a gender problem. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says that Walmart likely discriminated against 178 female workers by paying them less, denying them promotions or both, because of their gender. It’s an opportunity for Walmart to step up and take action, but will these allegations bring about change?

Allegations of gender discrimination are not new to the retail giant. In 2011, 1.5 million female Walmart employees complaining about pay and promotions tried to sue in a class action, but the Supreme Court decided that the women had too little in common to sue as a group. Many of these women have pursued their own individual lawsuits against Walmart.

In the latest charges, the EEOC urged Walmart and the women to come to a “just resolution” according to memos seen by the Wall Street Journal. While this could include a settlement, it would hopefully also be accompanied by culture changes at Walmart.

Here’s How Walmart Should Have Responded

Walmart should recognize that given the number of complaints there is likely a problem, and should state that they are going to take proactive measures to figure it out and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Here’s how I believe Walmart should respond to the gender discrimination allegations: “Walmart’s corporate culture is one of equal opportunity, and not one where women are given fewer opportunities and are paid less than their male counterparts. But, after repeated concerns expressed from women, we realize we need to work even harder to promote equity in our organization. We will be bringing in experts to continually audit our pay and promotion policies to help us create the most equitable employment policies possible, and will extend our efforts to teach employees about the pitfalls of unconscious bias. We understand that unconscious bias is often subtle and often hard to track down—but we pledge to do our best to minimize its effects. The gender bias problem isn’t specific to Walmart, it’s a much larger societal problem, but going forward we will do whatever we can to curb its effects on our employees and to become a leader in gender equity.”

Most importantly, Walmart needs to recognize that subtlety is a common characteristic of unconscious bias. A rationale can often be provided for each individual case of gender discrimination with regards to pay or promotion. It’s when pay and promotions are examined at an aggregate level that patterns start to emerge. Only Walmart can detect gender bias at this aggregate level.

The subtle nature of these cases was illustrated this August, when a Florida judge ruled against three female former Walmart workers in their discrimination suit, saying the women didn’t provide sufficient evidence to go to trial. Still, in the ruling, the judge wrote that “something was indeed rotten within the corporate culture at Walmart.” In other words, there wasn’t hard evidence, but something was clearly wrong. It’s up to Walmart to examine all the evidence and get rid of the rot.