Wal-Mart Offers Plan to Empower Women
Sep 28 2011
Retail Wrap >>

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. pledged to double the products it purchases from women-owned businesses to $20 billion and to fund more than $100 million in grants to train women workers around the world as part of a new public-relations campaign.

The world's largest retailer, which came under fire in a huge lawsuit alleging that it systematically paid and promoted women less than men, said it wanted to empower women as part of a broader effort to make Wal-Mart more socially responsible. The class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, but individual suits can go forward.

"I have seen how excluding women holds back families and holds back economies and countries," said Chief Executive Mike Duke, who also pledged to "make Wal-Mart the best place for women to work at all levels."

Mr. Duke said the company had made "significant efforts" to provide equality for women in recent years and considers training women around the world to be "smart business" that will help the company develop a "competitive edge" in emerging markets such as China and India.

He also estimated that women control $20 trillion in annual consumer spending world-wide and said that ensuring that Wal-Mart is viewed positively by women is important to the retailer's bottom line.

Under the company's plan, it will double its sourcing from women-owned businesses to $20 billion by 2016. It promised to launch training programs in factories in countries like Bangladesh and to help workers on farms that provide products to Wal-Mart gain better employment. It also plans to provide job training for women, including roughly 200,000 in the U.S., to help them land employment.

And it pledged to push suppliers to improve gender equity by hiring and promoting more women.

Wal-Mart said it developed the program in conjunction with several nongovernmental organizations and Melanne Verveer, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women's issues. 

Source: Wall Street Journal, 14 September 2011

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