Betty Dukes, Greeter Whose Walmart Lawsuit Went to Supreme Court, Dies at 67
By MICHAEL CORKERY JULY 18, 2017
Betty Dukes, a Walmart worker who led a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of discriminating against female employees — a landmark case that went all the way to United States Supreme Court — died on July 10 at her home in Antioch, Calif. She was 67.
Her death was confirmed on Tuesday by her brother William Ponnell. The cause had not been determined, but she had recently had heart problems, he said. Ms. Dukes had continued to work for Walmart until her retirement last year, a company spokesman said.
A Walmart greeter who welcomed customers to the store, Ms. Dukes was portrayed as the epitome of a low-paid female retail worker taking on a huge multinational corporation.
“She was a voice fighting for equal rights and against racial and gender discrimination in the workplace,” her niece Rita Roland said.
The lawsuit was filed in 2001 on behalf of as many as 1.5 million female workers. Among other discriminatory labor practices, it accused Walmart of a systemic gender discrimination— paying women less than their male counterparts and of unjustly passing over women for promotions — all in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of race, creed or gender.
But the Supreme Court dismissed the case in 2011 in a 5-4 decision in which its more conservative justices prevailed.
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