Wake Up by Women at Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart is undeniably the one-stop shop found in each small town and urban city. It continues to take over mom and pop stores on every street corner. With each turn of the aisle lies every condiment, cracker or cookie the great states could offer. It doesn’t take a genius to guess that Wal-Mart monopolizes all other grocery stores, and is found in 15 countries while employing more than 2.1 million people at 7,900 stores.
In 2001, a lawsuit was filed against Wal-Mart for discriminating against women in promotions and pay. More than 1.6 million current and former women employees presented cases against Wal-Mart. A Wal-Mart settlement could easily cost $8 billion with a case this big. Wal-Mart reacted to the lawsuit and the overwhelming decrease of stock value by introducing diversity initiatives within the company, which are intended to prevent gender bias and mistreatment of employees.
Reacting to this lawsuit and a decrease in stock value, Wal-Mart recently introduced workplace diversity initiatives, intended to prevent further gender bias and unfair treatment of workers.
"We will continue monitoring Wal-Mart to make sure that they do implement safeguards for women," said NOW Action Vice President Olga Vives. "Corporations must understand that a loaf of bread doesn't cost any less for a woman."
Do I think it is better to be responsible of responsive? This question could be characterized as a “chicken or egg” scenario. In the Webster’s Dictionary, the word responsive is defined as “giving response; constituting a response; being quick to respond or react appropriately or sympathetically.” Overall, being responsive is responding in a reactive manner, while having responsibility within your company in the first place is proactive. I would much rather a company act proactive and responsible from the get-go, than a company acting out of “sympathy” or reacting to irresponsibility.
In this particular situation, Wal-Mart was ethically acting out in the way that American society dictates. The “glass ceiling” is a socially accepted concept because we are complaining about this issue in the first place. If it would have been fixed by now, we wouldn’t have to raise arguments against Wal-mart, or any other big business, in the form of equal pay among women and men.
Wal-Mart acted irresponsibly towards women employees, and in turn had to respond by carrying out new diversity initiatives in order to prevent gender bias. It would have been smarter for Wal-Mart to treat women with respect and equal pay and opportunities in the first place.
Joseph Sellers, a plaintiffs attorney for the women in the Wal-Mart case quoted in Fortune Magazine, states it best: "I think Wal-Mart is finally taking us seriously."
Sources:
tp://walmartstores.com/AboutUs/
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/responsive
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/07/12/375875/index.htm
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/rightsandfreedoms/a/walmartsuit.htm
http://www.kentucky.com/2010/03/03/1164593/wal-mart-to-pay-117-million-in.html
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4 comments:
Emily, I greatly enjoyed reading your post. I love the "chicken or egg" reference and your Walmart example. You have a creative way of putting things in a new light. It is quite refreshing to read. Keep up your good thoughts!
Hey Emily, great blog! I agree with you that Wal-Mart should have been responsible from the beginning, rather than just being responsive because it was forced too.
I liked the way you looked at being responsible vs. responsive. I thought along the same lines as you, but from a totally different aspect. I took being responsible as the primary entity to be held accountable for something and being responsive and being proactive. I agree that being responsible should start prior to any problems though. That was my favorite part. If companies are responsible first, then they won't have to be responsive.
I think Sam Walton is probably rolling over in his grave. When Wal-Mart started, they only sold products made in America. I believe if they had kept to that promise after Sam died, companies would still be making those same products inside our borders. But Wal-Mart is so big that they can drive not only mom & pop retailers out of business, but force large manufacturers to move jobs overseas all for the sake of the Almighty Dollar. This is an example of them being responsive to the bottom line without being responsive to the need for employment of the same people who shop at their stores.
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