Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

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Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an $11 billion USD sexual discrimination lawsuit, and the largest civil rights class-action suit in United States history. It charges Wal-Mart with discriminating against women in promotions, pay, and job assignments in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The case started in 2000, when a 54-year-old Wal-Mart worker in California named Betty Dukes filed a sex discrimination claim against her employer. Despite six years of hard work and excellent performance reviews, Dukes claimed, she was denied the training she needed to advance to a higher, salaried position. (Critics note that Dukes clashed with a female Wal-Mart supervisor and was disciplined for admittedly returning late from lunch breaks.)

In June 2001, the lawsuit commenced in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, which granted the case class action status. The plaintiffs seek to represent 1.6 million women, including all women who work or have previously worked in a Wal-Mart store since December 26, 1998.^[1] In June 2004, the federal district judge, Martin Jenkins, ruled in favor of class certification. Wal-Mart appealed the decision, which has been criticized by conservatives as an inappropriate use of the class action mechanism.^[2] On February 6, 2007, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's class certification. Judge Harry Pregerson wrote for the majority, which also included Judge Michael Daly Hawkins, and Judge Andrew J. Kleinfeld dissented.^[3]

In 2004, journalist Liza Featherstone published a book about the case, Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers' Rights at Wal-Mart in which she contends that Wal-Mart's success is based not only on its inexpensive merchandise or its popularity but also on bad labor practices.