Gender Matters. So Do Race and Class: Experiences of Gendered Racism on the Wal-Mart Shop Floor

Abstract

This article demonstrates how biography shapes the experiences and testimonies of the women who participated in the Dukes v. Wal-Mart class action lawsuit. Using content analysis of 110 legal declarations, this study addresses three themes observed within court documents: gender discrimination, race relations between employees, and class differences among plaintiffs. The results confirm that women who participated in the ongoing class action lawsuit experienced varying forms of abuse and empowerment due to their positions as raced, classed, and gendered employees. The employees were forced to waste resources navigating relationships to power—energy which could have been used to improve themselves and empower those in their immediate communities. Therefore, the experiences of these women, as representatives of larger social groups, are telling of the nature of work for the millions of women that work for Wal-Mart stores and elsewhere.