ABSTRACT
A national retail chain, known for warehouse merchandising, employed roughly 90% men as its sales force and roughly 90% women as its cashiers. Sales positions pay better and lead to managerial positions. When women brought a class action suit against the company, it came to light that qualified women were ignored or discouraged for sales positions. Given the ethnic diversity of the company’s customer base, management had worked actively to recruit more ethnic diversity into its sales force. However, the company’s customer base was about evenly split between men and women, but the company failed to recognize that its economic dependence on women similarly suggested gender integration of its sales associates. Recognizing and building on economic interdependence would have created more successful contacts between genders in its sales efforts.
