Court says Wal-Mart must face bias trial

The ongoing class-action suit against WalMart, brought by women claiming they did not receive the same pay raises and priomotions as their male counterparts, is back in the news.

WalMart would really realy like for this to not be a class action suit. In a class action suit, the plaintiffs comprise all possible individuals who belong to the class -- in this case, any woman who has worked for Walmart since December 26, 1998. Class action settlements tend to be quite expensive for losing defendants; the news story is using the term "billions".

WalMart can affort the expensive lawyers, who are attempting to demolish the whole concept of class action lawsuits. however the plaintiffs appear to be in this for the long haul.

The suit is entering into its fourth year, but don't be looking for a resolution any time soon. All that's been settled here is the class action certificantion. The testimony, expert witnesses, etc. are way off in the future.

A lot of employment discriminations suits are settled out of court. But, I really don't think WalMart is likely to settle, since any settlement is going to involve some admission of guilt, as well as a financial settlement. My best guess is that we won't see any resolution for 4 to 5 years, and longer wouldn't surprise me out of a year's growth.

Do I have an opinion? Glad you asked.....of course I do. This is a classic "adverse impact" suit, meaning that discrimination is established by statistical evidence establishing that outcomes are significantly different form men and women (the dreaded "4/5 rule"). Once that's done, Walmart has to prove that their promotion and pay practices are business-related (validity). I haven't seen any of the evidence, but, first, I suspect that there'll be a lot of statistical byplay on the 4/5 rule. Also, it isn't a matter of "guilty" or "not guilty" here. I'd guess that the plaintiffs can establish that there is discrimination going on. What the plaintiffs are going to need, though, is to find something in writing (internal memos, etc.) that establishes that the discrimination is intentional. That's, strictly speaking, not necessary for this type of suit, but it would sure help.

Stay tuned for more developments.

Court says Wal-Mart must face bias trial I'll add a more permanent link later on

A different take on gender issues in Japan

If you'll recall, we touched on gender roles in Japan.

For example, it's only just now that the Japanese are considering changing the rules to allow a female heir to inherit the throne. Japanese women are less likely than women in the US to be part of the paid labor force.

It does seem as though these traditional gender roles are undergioing some change. More and more Japanese women are delaying or foregoing marriage. Japanese women control the household finances. On the other hand, these developments may well mean that women have different expectations, but that men still hold to traditional values. Why marry, if all that means is being a second class citizen. And, if you do marry, have some securtiy that you control.

I'd really like some comments on this one; press the little envelope button below to comment.

New Book on Vanderbilt Women

This may be of some interest to the leadership class from fall 2005 (who are you kidding, Kristin ?) -- this recently published book is a detailed study of the 2 Vanderbilt women we saw for just a few minutes in the video.

'Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt,' by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

Quick post for Feb. 14 -- Cross-Cultural Flirting

Flirts: doing what comes naturally - Yahoo! News

Some interesting points about Alva Vanderbilt

Ok. Tonight in Leadership Seminar, we saw a film on the Vanderbilts. You'd think the focus would be on Cornelius ("The Commodore," founder of the family fortune) or William (son of Cornelius, who greatly added to the Vanderbilt wealthj). To me, the interesting one was neither of these two, but William's wife, Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt Belmont. There's a bit more to her than we saw -- she was truly dedicated to the women's suffrage movement, and the divorce from Vanderbilt was suspiciously quickly followed by her marriage to Oliver Bemont.

Long Island History: LI's Rebels With a Cause