03-21-2006, 08:51 AM
<span style='font-size:30pt;line-height:100%'><b>Selling Women Short</b></span>
The society that we live is framed as a place where women and men have equal rights; however in reality we live in a society that treats women unequally and still looks at women as sexual objects and baby machines. Selling Women short primarily talks about the sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and low wage and pay differentials among workers at all levels at Wal-Mart. The author is telling the story of the true cost of the low price goods at Wal-Mart by mainly interviewing the plaintiffs who filed the "Dukes Vs. Wal-mart" case, which is the class-action suit against Wal-Mart by some of its female employees. Even though the "Dukes Vs. Wal-mart" case is about sex discrimination Dukes and Theresa Collier who was also experiecned race discrimination filed these claims against Wal-Mart.However the author does not talk much about other problems at Wal-Mart such as racial discrimination and exploited overseas labor. As a sociology student I'll be addressing feminism ,functionalism and conflict theory which I found to be relevent to this book.
Sex discrimination has always been with Wal-Mart even when Sam Walton was alive.
In 1985 Wal-Mart's top 42 employees all men and the board of directors were also female-free. This is an example for gender inequality at Wal-Mart .Hilary Clinton became Wal-Mart's first female board member in 1986 and helped to add more women employees. By 1989 there were only two female vice presidents among Wal-Mart's top 88 officers (Pg30-31) showing inequality of opportunity. The story of sexual dicrimination begins with Stephanie Odle who believes that her promotion was denied and she was fired to make rooms for male employees.She found that she was paid $10,000 less compared to a male worker who had little experience with the company.To gain equal income she filed a sex discrimination claim with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Wal-mart (Pg14-20). Odle was determined to change the company so she became one of the plaintiffs in the national class action suit knowing that she wouldn't see any money for years, if at all. Since the case was filed in San Francisco the lawyers wanted someone from California to be the lead plaintiff instead of Odle hence in 2001 the case added the "American Goliath" Betty Dukes who was a leader in her community church (pg 35-36).Dukes had a social status among her community which made her eligible to be the leader of the national class action suit.
Wal mart has been seen through a frame as a family oriented company.Many Wal-Mart employess were dependent on social assistance because of low wages (pg 63). Those who faced sex discrimination would not complain because this is the only job they had. Wal-mart has an "Open Door" policy where its workers can bring complaints to any higher positions but it's ridicule by workers since the company tends to fire complainers.This policy creats a fear among the workers so not everybody wants bring their issues to a higher level(pg69).Female workers were not promoted as managers and were given silly excuses as reasons by Wal-Mart (pg 97). Part of the Wal-Mart policy is that pay depends on performance; this doesn't seem to be true for women in the company since the performance rating is higher for female workers in all levels (PG 97-104). Officials say that women do not often get promoted because they are not interested in management jobs but the truth is that women were not even given the opportunity, since the male workers give those positions to their buddies without even posting the openings (PG 105-106).
The Dukes case is not only about wages. The case is about inequality, and the fact that men are getting paid more when doing the same job as women. Pay differences exist although female's superior performance evaluations. A male assistant manager makes $39,790 per year whereas a female assistant manager makes $37,322.
After the case went to trial Dukes eventually received a real raise, making$10 per hour (pg247). Since then there have been many other cases of female promotions and raises (pg248). Wal-Mart officials started damage control by trying to gain the public back with "facts" that the public were not aware of, and new advertisements that show women being treated as equally as men and showing them as a company that offers great opportunities for women. The company opened more management jobs to both women and minority figures which showed that gender inequalities started to diminish. Also, in a 2004 shareholder meeting, Wal-Mart announced it was structuring its wage system to make it a more equitable place to work (pg250-253).
The company has not only been sexually discriminating its workers but also giving mental pressure. Dukes believes that she was denied the adequate training to advance to a higher position and those positions were given to younger and newer male employees. When she complained to her superiors about this issue she was demoted (pg2). Odle complained about her low pay by comparing a new male employee and as a result she was asked bring her personal household budget (pg 16). Arena was never promoted to a salaried position, however, she was forced to put Wal-Mart's demands ahead of her family and she was often sent away for a week at a time to open up new Wal-Mart stores (pg.63). A witness, Rhonda says that she was the only female on the jet with store managers traveling for Wal-Mart. The Pilot would greet them all saying "Welcome Gentlemen"; but there would be no correction made that not everyone there was male. Melissa Howard, a store manager says that at the annual meetings male managers would go out to strip clubs. She also says that sometimes she was forced to listen to these managers' conversations about the waitresses' breasts and butts and which sexual experiences they would like to have with them (pg 79-81). Angela Horton says that a company-approved committee hired a stripper to celebrate a male store manager's birthday in her store's meeting (pg 83). To these Wal-Mart officials sexual harassment is not morally wrong because it's accepted in their world. It seems that women are sexual objects who do not have emotions or feelings.
The feminist approach looks at the systematic inequality in social standards and processes among women and men (Ferree, Myra Marx, Judieth Lorber, and Beth B. Heiss, 1999). Since Wal-Mart sexually discriminated and sexually harassed its female workers, paid unequal wages for men and women, it can be used as an illustration for the feminist perspective. For instance Joyce Moody was asked by her manager to clean the oil changing station by saying 'The pits need a women touch'. She was fired after reporting sexual discrimination against him. She went on a drive with a district manager to discuss about not cutting employees from her section; where the district managers told her "If you help me I'll help you" (pg 184) which implies that the manager would do a favor for her if she agrees to satisfy his sexual desires.
Structural functionalism states how all elements of society functions to accomplish the needs of society as a whole (Tepperman and Curtis, 2004). Sam Walton set up his company, with poor low class employees at the bottom who are forced to work at Wal-Mart since they have no education or other job experience. Wal-Mart opens its new stores in poor areas where the consumers can only afford to shop at Wal-Mart for its cheap prices. Employing the poor for low pay keeps the rich richer, leaving the poor with no alternate option to these unfair working conditions.
Marx's Conflict theory argues that the competition of individuals and groups for wealth and power shapes our social structures based on the questions, "who gets what and why?"(One World, PG 3-51). Wal-Mart wants to meet its profit level every year so the company tricks employs such as cutting employers hours and also sometimes ask the workers to work "Off the Clock", which means that they close the store doors and force the workers to work without paying for overtime. Wal-Mart knows that its workers need their pay cheques thus those who face sex discrimination won't complain because they need their jobs. Wal-Mart is a powerful corporation so it feels that it can exploit the employees who have less power.
The Dukes case receieved lot of media attention.Since there were inequalities among workers at Wal-Mart, social movements, which represent the problematization of inequality such as NOW and UFCW brought media attention by making this case as a socially problamatic issue.UFCW engaged with church groups and environmental activitists (pg 201). It also organized nationwide Mother's Day protests infront of Wal-Mart which got more public and media attention .In June 2002,National Organization for Women launched a public education campaign, letting the public known that Wal-Mart discriminates against its female workers. NOW urges the public not to shop at Wal-Mart (pg 200-202). Even though there were some racial discrimination among Wal-Mart workers, the Dukes case was framed as sex discrimination claims against Wal-Mart because racial discrimination is a minor issue at Wal-Mart but sexual discrimination is experienced at all levels at Wal-Mart.The Dukes Vs Wal-Mart case represented 1.6 million of women from all over the world but if it was about racial diccrimination the women's voices may not be heard as collectively.
The author has done a great job in her rhetoric and extensive interviewing with plaintiffs ; by letting them talk for themselves. Featherstone brings us the acutual stories with statical evidence. For the most part the book is based on interviews so the author bores the reader by repeating some of the facts again and again.The author also fails to put the facts and evidences in chronological order, hence, it makes the book more difficult to understand.
She shows little of the other side of the story by telling us what Wal-Mart want's argument is. At the same time she does not tell us her view points about Wal-Mart's side. I think instead of just putting the information together from the interviews and giving the statistcal facts, the author could have told us what she thinks about the case by looking at it from both sides.
Wal-Mart is also known for its exploiting workers rights in overseas. For instance there are child workers and women working under bad working conditions who may lack the strength to organize a union (pg 53).Even though she mentions about other problems at Wal-Mart such as working " Off the Clock" and racial discriminations and sweat shops she does not go into them as in depth instead, she only focuses on sex discriminatoins. Since the author,Liza Featherstone is from The United States of America she was able see how female workers are being sexually discriminated,harrasaed at Wak-Mart.As a female Journalist she probably wanted to help these women who fight against Wal-Mart by using her writing as a supportive weapon. However if she is from one of the the sweatshop countries such as China,she certainly would have concentrated on overseas workers' issues.
In Canada a similar case to Dukes Vs. Wal-Mart was filed agains Sears in 1973 however the judgement was given in 1988 favor to Sears (Stacy A. Teiche, 2003). Another similar case was filed againt Home Depot's westerd division and resolved in favor of plaintiffs, Home Depot settled $104 million for varies claims in 1997(Stacy A. Teiche, 2003).
Overall Selling women short has done a wonderful job of showing the Dukes Vs Wal-Mart case about sex discrimination, sexual harassment and pay difference among female and male workers at Wal-Mart. Although the author does not show other problems with Wal-Mart, she did her task properly. It was engaging to read this book, which gave me lot of information about the issues that the working females are facing in companies like Wal-Mart. Actively reading this book I was able to relate the book to the ideas of the feminist approach, conflict theory and I showed how social movements can help to resolve inequalities. The result of the case for the female workers was that payments were raised and some of the female workers got opportunities to advance their career with Wal-Mart.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
<b>Reference</b>
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 2)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 14 - 20)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 16)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 30 - 31)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 35 - 36)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 53)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 63)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 69)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 79)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 83)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 97-104)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG105-106)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG130-131)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 184)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 201)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 200-202)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 247)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 248)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 250-253)
Tepperman and Curtis (2004). Sociology a Canadian Perspective. Oxford University Press. (Pg18).
Ferree, Myra Marx, Judieth Lorber, and Beth B. Heiss, (1999). Revisioning Gender. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications (pp.xii) Retrieved March 12, from http://www.soc.msu.edu/FeministSociology.html
Theory Greats. One World (pg 3-51) (n.d.) as retrieved on 28 Feb 2006, from
http://www94.homepage.villanova.edu/peter....pp/THgreats.htm
Stacy A. Teicher. (October 27, 2003). Standing against bia. The Christian Science Monitor, (October 27, 2003 edition). Retrieved on 9 Mar 2006, from http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1027/p14s03-wmgn.html
The society that we live is framed as a place where women and men have equal rights; however in reality we live in a society that treats women unequally and still looks at women as sexual objects and baby machines. Selling Women short primarily talks about the sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and low wage and pay differentials among workers at all levels at Wal-Mart. The author is telling the story of the true cost of the low price goods at Wal-Mart by mainly interviewing the plaintiffs who filed the "Dukes Vs. Wal-mart" case, which is the class-action suit against Wal-Mart by some of its female employees. Even though the "Dukes Vs. Wal-mart" case is about sex discrimination Dukes and Theresa Collier who was also experiecned race discrimination filed these claims against Wal-Mart.However the author does not talk much about other problems at Wal-Mart such as racial discrimination and exploited overseas labor. As a sociology student I'll be addressing feminism ,functionalism and conflict theory which I found to be relevent to this book.
Sex discrimination has always been with Wal-Mart even when Sam Walton was alive.
In 1985 Wal-Mart's top 42 employees all men and the board of directors were also female-free. This is an example for gender inequality at Wal-Mart .Hilary Clinton became Wal-Mart's first female board member in 1986 and helped to add more women employees. By 1989 there were only two female vice presidents among Wal-Mart's top 88 officers (Pg30-31) showing inequality of opportunity. The story of sexual dicrimination begins with Stephanie Odle who believes that her promotion was denied and she was fired to make rooms for male employees.She found that she was paid $10,000 less compared to a male worker who had little experience with the company.To gain equal income she filed a sex discrimination claim with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Wal-mart (Pg14-20). Odle was determined to change the company so she became one of the plaintiffs in the national class action suit knowing that she wouldn't see any money for years, if at all. Since the case was filed in San Francisco the lawyers wanted someone from California to be the lead plaintiff instead of Odle hence in 2001 the case added the "American Goliath" Betty Dukes who was a leader in her community church (pg 35-36).Dukes had a social status among her community which made her eligible to be the leader of the national class action suit.
Wal mart has been seen through a frame as a family oriented company.Many Wal-Mart employess were dependent on social assistance because of low wages (pg 63). Those who faced sex discrimination would not complain because this is the only job they had. Wal-mart has an "Open Door" policy where its workers can bring complaints to any higher positions but it's ridicule by workers since the company tends to fire complainers.This policy creats a fear among the workers so not everybody wants bring their issues to a higher level(pg69).Female workers were not promoted as managers and were given silly excuses as reasons by Wal-Mart (pg 97). Part of the Wal-Mart policy is that pay depends on performance; this doesn't seem to be true for women in the company since the performance rating is higher for female workers in all levels (PG 97-104). Officials say that women do not often get promoted because they are not interested in management jobs but the truth is that women were not even given the opportunity, since the male workers give those positions to their buddies without even posting the openings (PG 105-106).
The Dukes case is not only about wages. The case is about inequality, and the fact that men are getting paid more when doing the same job as women. Pay differences exist although female's superior performance evaluations. A male assistant manager makes $39,790 per year whereas a female assistant manager makes $37,322.
After the case went to trial Dukes eventually received a real raise, making$10 per hour (pg247). Since then there have been many other cases of female promotions and raises (pg248). Wal-Mart officials started damage control by trying to gain the public back with "facts" that the public were not aware of, and new advertisements that show women being treated as equally as men and showing them as a company that offers great opportunities for women. The company opened more management jobs to both women and minority figures which showed that gender inequalities started to diminish. Also, in a 2004 shareholder meeting, Wal-Mart announced it was structuring its wage system to make it a more equitable place to work (pg250-253).
The company has not only been sexually discriminating its workers but also giving mental pressure. Dukes believes that she was denied the adequate training to advance to a higher position and those positions were given to younger and newer male employees. When she complained to her superiors about this issue she was demoted (pg2). Odle complained about her low pay by comparing a new male employee and as a result she was asked bring her personal household budget (pg 16). Arena was never promoted to a salaried position, however, she was forced to put Wal-Mart's demands ahead of her family and she was often sent away for a week at a time to open up new Wal-Mart stores (pg.63). A witness, Rhonda says that she was the only female on the jet with store managers traveling for Wal-Mart. The Pilot would greet them all saying "Welcome Gentlemen"; but there would be no correction made that not everyone there was male. Melissa Howard, a store manager says that at the annual meetings male managers would go out to strip clubs. She also says that sometimes she was forced to listen to these managers' conversations about the waitresses' breasts and butts and which sexual experiences they would like to have with them (pg 79-81). Angela Horton says that a company-approved committee hired a stripper to celebrate a male store manager's birthday in her store's meeting (pg 83). To these Wal-Mart officials sexual harassment is not morally wrong because it's accepted in their world. It seems that women are sexual objects who do not have emotions or feelings.
The feminist approach looks at the systematic inequality in social standards and processes among women and men (Ferree, Myra Marx, Judieth Lorber, and Beth B. Heiss, 1999). Since Wal-Mart sexually discriminated and sexually harassed its female workers, paid unequal wages for men and women, it can be used as an illustration for the feminist perspective. For instance Joyce Moody was asked by her manager to clean the oil changing station by saying 'The pits need a women touch'. She was fired after reporting sexual discrimination against him. She went on a drive with a district manager to discuss about not cutting employees from her section; where the district managers told her "If you help me I'll help you" (pg 184) which implies that the manager would do a favor for her if she agrees to satisfy his sexual desires.
Structural functionalism states how all elements of society functions to accomplish the needs of society as a whole (Tepperman and Curtis, 2004). Sam Walton set up his company, with poor low class employees at the bottom who are forced to work at Wal-Mart since they have no education or other job experience. Wal-Mart opens its new stores in poor areas where the consumers can only afford to shop at Wal-Mart for its cheap prices. Employing the poor for low pay keeps the rich richer, leaving the poor with no alternate option to these unfair working conditions.
Marx's Conflict theory argues that the competition of individuals and groups for wealth and power shapes our social structures based on the questions, "who gets what and why?"(One World, PG 3-51). Wal-Mart wants to meet its profit level every year so the company tricks employs such as cutting employers hours and also sometimes ask the workers to work "Off the Clock", which means that they close the store doors and force the workers to work without paying for overtime. Wal-Mart knows that its workers need their pay cheques thus those who face sex discrimination won't complain because they need their jobs. Wal-Mart is a powerful corporation so it feels that it can exploit the employees who have less power.
The Dukes case receieved lot of media attention.Since there were inequalities among workers at Wal-Mart, social movements, which represent the problematization of inequality such as NOW and UFCW brought media attention by making this case as a socially problamatic issue.UFCW engaged with church groups and environmental activitists (pg 201). It also organized nationwide Mother's Day protests infront of Wal-Mart which got more public and media attention .In June 2002,National Organization for Women launched a public education campaign, letting the public known that Wal-Mart discriminates against its female workers. NOW urges the public not to shop at Wal-Mart (pg 200-202). Even though there were some racial discrimination among Wal-Mart workers, the Dukes case was framed as sex discrimination claims against Wal-Mart because racial discrimination is a minor issue at Wal-Mart but sexual discrimination is experienced at all levels at Wal-Mart.The Dukes Vs Wal-Mart case represented 1.6 million of women from all over the world but if it was about racial diccrimination the women's voices may not be heard as collectively.
The author has done a great job in her rhetoric and extensive interviewing with plaintiffs ; by letting them talk for themselves. Featherstone brings us the acutual stories with statical evidence. For the most part the book is based on interviews so the author bores the reader by repeating some of the facts again and again.The author also fails to put the facts and evidences in chronological order, hence, it makes the book more difficult to understand.
She shows little of the other side of the story by telling us what Wal-Mart want's argument is. At the same time she does not tell us her view points about Wal-Mart's side. I think instead of just putting the information together from the interviews and giving the statistcal facts, the author could have told us what she thinks about the case by looking at it from both sides.
Wal-Mart is also known for its exploiting workers rights in overseas. For instance there are child workers and women working under bad working conditions who may lack the strength to organize a union (pg 53).Even though she mentions about other problems at Wal-Mart such as working " Off the Clock" and racial discriminations and sweat shops she does not go into them as in depth instead, she only focuses on sex discriminatoins. Since the author,Liza Featherstone is from The United States of America she was able see how female workers are being sexually discriminated,harrasaed at Wak-Mart.As a female Journalist she probably wanted to help these women who fight against Wal-Mart by using her writing as a supportive weapon. However if she is from one of the the sweatshop countries such as China,she certainly would have concentrated on overseas workers' issues.
In Canada a similar case to Dukes Vs. Wal-Mart was filed agains Sears in 1973 however the judgement was given in 1988 favor to Sears (Stacy A. Teiche, 2003). Another similar case was filed againt Home Depot's westerd division and resolved in favor of plaintiffs, Home Depot settled $104 million for varies claims in 1997(Stacy A. Teiche, 2003).
Overall Selling women short has done a wonderful job of showing the Dukes Vs Wal-Mart case about sex discrimination, sexual harassment and pay difference among female and male workers at Wal-Mart. Although the author does not show other problems with Wal-Mart, she did her task properly. It was engaging to read this book, which gave me lot of information about the issues that the working females are facing in companies like Wal-Mart. Actively reading this book I was able to relate the book to the ideas of the feminist approach, conflict theory and I showed how social movements can help to resolve inequalities. The result of the case for the female workers was that payments were raised and some of the female workers got opportunities to advance their career with Wal-Mart.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
<b>Reference</b>
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 2)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 14 - 20)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 16)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 30 - 31)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 35 - 36)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 53)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 63)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 69)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 79)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 83)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 97-104)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG105-106)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG130-131)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 184)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 201)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 200-202)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 247)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 248)
Liza Featherstone. (2004). Selling Women Short. New York: Basic Books. (PG 250-253)
Tepperman and Curtis (2004). Sociology a Canadian Perspective. Oxford University Press. (Pg18).
Ferree, Myra Marx, Judieth Lorber, and Beth B. Heiss, (1999). Revisioning Gender. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications (pp.xii) Retrieved March 12, from http://www.soc.msu.edu/FeministSociology.html
Theory Greats. One World (pg 3-51) (n.d.) as retrieved on 28 Feb 2006, from
http://www94.homepage.villanova.edu/peter....pp/THgreats.htm
Stacy A. Teicher. (October 27, 2003). Standing against bia. The Christian Science Monitor, (October 27, 2003 edition). Retrieved on 9 Mar 2006, from http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1027/p14s03-wmgn.html
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