“This isn’t the Stone Age,” or Sex Discrimination at Walmart

Jesus. Liza Featherstone over at the Daily Beast talks to one of the plaintiffs in the Walmart case, and the story she tells isn’t a pretty one:

When Gunter came to work at a Wal-Mart in Riverside, California, in 1996, at the age of 46, with 20 years of retail experience, she was sure she’d advance in the company. A passionate animal lover, she also boasted 30 years of experience raising show dogs. Yet Gunter says she was rejected for the position of pet department head because she “didn’t have enough experience.” The job went (twice) to teenage boys.

During her tenure at the company, Gunter was repeatedly passed over for promotion in favor of men she had trained, she says in court documents. Her bosses didn’t pretend to be running a civilized workplace: Once, after she’d had a fight with her husband, her supervisor suggested, “Why don’t you put your face in my lap and take care of both of our problems?”

Disclosure:  I’m proud to work for the labor union that runs the Wake up Walmart campaign to improve Walmart’s treatment of their employees. And we run that campaign precisely because of stories like these.