Wal-Mart is trying to clean up its image. A recent media blitz by the world's largest corporation has included newspaper advertisements, television interviews and the development of a web site; all of which say that Wal-Mart has been misunderstood by the American public and the world at large, that it's actually a great place to work and to shop. They've let the naysayers go on too long without rebuttal, and now is the time to let everyone know that Wal-Mart is a good thing and a great corporate citizen.

I wonder if the publication of this book, on top of all the bad press the company has received over the past year, had anything to do with this media drive. Because the truth is, women should neither want to work at nor shop at Wal-Mart. The vast majority of Wal-Mart's female workers have the jobs that make the least amount of money, requiring many of them to join the welfare rolls and collect food stamps just to feed their families. When women try to move up in the company's ranks they are often rebuffed and when they complain about the lack of advancement they are abused, demoted or fired.

These problems prompted Betty Dukes and a handful of other named plaintiffs to mount the largest class action lawsuit in history alleging systematic and companywide sexist discrimination. Selling Women Short chronicles the formation and discovery phases of that lawsuit, as well as Wal-Mart's "female trouble" and the strange loyalty workers (including many of the women now suing) have to Mr. Sam and his company.

As a woman who has grown up in the shadow of Wal-Mart, living less than a half hour's drive from Wal-Mart's world headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, I can understand this strange loyalty. I grew up shopping at Wal-Mart, and my hometown and the surrounding area has prospered because of Wal-Mart. I don't think there's a person in Northwest Arkansas who doesn't know someone who works for Wal-Mart or one of the vendors (in order to sell their goods at Wal-Mart, companies must have a physical office in Northwest Arkansas).

Our economy has been driven by Wal-Mart (and the other giant corporations to spring from these hills, such as Tyson Foods and J.B. Hunt's trucking company) and any loss the company suffers is felt throughout the community. Wal-Mart made many people here rich, and it would hurt many people if this lawsuit required a large enough payout.

From the stories told and the historic cases presented in this book, though, I don't think we have a lot to worry about, economically speaking. Usually class-action suits like this don't end up paying out a lot of money for the plaintiffs (they would hurt a company much more if each one sued separately).

But the larger we, the human and female community, have much to worry about. Programs to educate shoppers about Wal-Mart's woes have done little to stop people from shopping there. Where I live, there are clearly people who hate Wal-Mart, but there are many more who love it, both because it provides a livelihood for so many here and because the prices are so low.

And this is where the problem arises. Wal-Mart both employs and serves poor women. And the poor women who shop at Wal-Mart aren't willing or able to shop elsewhere in protest of Wal-Mart's embarrassing treatment of women. And even people who can afford to shop elsewhere (myself included, I'll admit, at least before I read this book) often don't because it's impossible to resist the draw of a store where you can buy anything you need: large bags of pet food, tires, film, craft supplies and groceries all under one roof (and cheaply, too). Like Mr. Sam (Walton, founder of Wal-Mart) most of America is cheap and loves finding a bargain. It's easier not to think about how poorly the workers are treated than to drive all over town to buy things you could have gotten a lot faster and cheaper at Wal-Mart.

This book offers an eye-opening and engaging look at some of those workers. Women who worked at Wal-Mart stores all over the country have surprisingly similar stories. They began working at Wal-Mart because they heard it was a great company with lots of room for advancement. They began in low-paying cashier jobs but had high hopes for moving up and said so in their evaluations. They followed up and were often told they needed more or different training in order to move into management. Meanwhile they weren't allowed that training and less experienced men were promoted above them. The women often had to train these men and were given no more compensation. Other women who had access to payroll information realized they were being paid less than less experienced men who held the same jobs.

The evidence against Wal-Mart is staggering, and this book tells the story of the company's systematic discrimination in a straightforward way. While the story gets a little repetitive in places, as if it were written as a series of articles put together into a book without much editing, this page-turner will make you angry and make you wish you could do something. Of course you can just not shop at Wal-Mart, but there are people out there who will always shop there, no matter what accusations are made against the company. So this book also makes you feel small and powerless against this giant organization, much like these women probably felt until they decided to stand up together against it.