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WASHINGTON (AP) - Christine Kwapnoski hasn't done too badly in
nearly 25 years in the Wal-Mart family, making more than $60,000 a
year in a job she enjoys most days.


      But Kwapnoski says she faced obstacles at Wal-Mart-owned Sam's
Club stores in both Missouri and California: Men making more than
women and getting promoted faster.


      She never heard a supervisor tell a man, as she says one told
her, to "doll up" or "blow the cobwebs off" her make-up.


      Once she got over the fear that she might be fired, she joined
what has turned into the largest job discrimination lawsuit ever.


      The 46-year-old single mother of two is one of the named
plaintiffs in a suit that will be argued at the Supreme Court on
Tuesday. At stake is whether the suit can go forward as a class
action that could involve 500,000 to 1.6 million women, according
to varying estimates, and potentially could cost the world's
largest retailer billions of dollars.


      But the case's potential importance goes well beyond the
Wal-Mart dispute, as evidenced by more than two dozen briefs filed
by business interests on Wal-Mart's side, and civil rights,
consumer and union groups on the other.


      The question is crucial to the viability of discrimination
claims, which become powerful vehicles to force change when they
are presented together, instead of individually. Class actions
increase pressure on businesses to settle suits because of the cost
of defending them and the potential for very large judgments.


      Columbia University law professor John Coffee said that the high
court could bring a virtual end to employment discrimination class
actions filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
depending on how it decides the Wal-Mart case.


      "Litigation brought by individuals under Title VII is just too
costly," Coffee said. "It's either class action or nothing."


      Illustrating the value of class actions, Brad Seligman, the
California-based lawyer who conceived of and filed the suit 10
years ago, said the average salary for a woman at Wal-Mart was
$13,000, about $1,100 less than the average for a man, when the
case began. 


"That's hugely significant if you're making $13,000 a
year, but not enough to hire a lawyer and bring a case."


      The company has fought the suit every step of the way, Seligman
said, because it is the "biggest litigation threat Wal-Mart has
ever faced."


      A trial judge and the federal appeals court in San Francisco,
over a fierce dissent, said the suit could go forward.


      But Wal-Mart wants the high court to stop the suit in its
tracks. The company argues it includes too many women with too many
different positions in its 3,400 stores across the country.

Wal-Mart says its policies prohibit discrimination and that most
management decisions are made at the store and regional levels, not
at its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters.


      Theodore J. Boutrous, Wal-Mart's California-based lawyer, said
there is no evidence that women are poorly treated at Wal-Mart.


"The evidence is the contrary of that," Boutrous said.


      The company is not conceding that any woman has faced
discrimination, but says that if any allegations are proven, they
are isolated. 

"People will make errors," said Gisel Ruiz,
Wal-Mart's executive vice president for people, as the company
calls its human resources unit. "People are people."


      Ruiz paints a very different picture of the opportunities
offered women at Wal-Mart. She joined the company straight from
college in 1992. 


"In less than four years, I went from an
assistant manager trainee to running my own store," she said.
"I'm one of thousands of women who have had a positive experience
at Wal-Mart."


      Kwapnoski, who works at the Sam's Club in Concord, Calif., is
one of two women who continue to work at Wal-Mart while playing a
prominent role in the suit. The other is Betty Dukes, a greeter at
the Wal-Mart in Pittsburg, Calif.


      "It's very hard for anyone to understand how difficult that is,
and what courage that is," Seligman said of Kwapnoski and Dukes.
"They're Public Enemy No. 1 at Wal-Mart and they are known for
their involvement in this lawsuit. Nevertheless, they get and up
and go to work every day."


      Kwapnoski didn't want to discuss any issues she faces at work as
a result of the suit.


      She said she has seen some changes at Wal-Mart since the suit
was filed in 2001. The company now posts all its openings
electronically. 


"It does give people a better idea of what's out
there, but they still can be very easily passed over," she said.
"But before you didn't even know the position was open."


      The suit, citing what are now dated figures from 2001, contends
that women are grossly underrepresented among managers, holding
just 14 percent of store manager positions compared with more than
80 percent of lower-ranking supervisory jobs that are paid by the
hour. Wal-Mart responds that women in its retail stores made up
two-thirds of all employees and two-thirds of all managers in 2001.


      Kwapnoski said she and a lot of women were promoted into
management just after the suit was filed, although she has had only
a couple of pay increases in the nine years since. She is the
assistant manager in her store's groceries and produce sections.


      Now, she said, promotions are back to the way they were before,
favoring men over women.


      She said she's hoping the long-running court fight will force
Wal-Mart to recognize that, stories like Ruiz's aside, women are
not valued as much as men are and that her bosses will begin to
"make sure that good men and good women are being promoted, not
just men."

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Crime, Law and Justice

Courts

The case alleging that Wal-Mart discriminates against its female employees will be argued at the Supreme Court Tuesday. At stake is whether the suit can go forward as a class action that could involve hundreds of thousands of women, and potentially could cost the world's largest retailer billions of dollars.

High court takes up huge sex bias claim vs. Wal-Mart

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