Appeals Court Gives Go-Ahead for Women's Group to Sue Wal-Mart

A federal appeals court ruled Monday that female Wal-Mart employees can go forward with a class action lawsuit for sexual discrimination.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco gave a 6 to 5 decision in a decade-long battle over the right for the women to sue, the Washington Post reported. Wal-Mart said it will ask the Supreme Court to review the case.

The original 2001 lawsuit accuses Wal-Mart of paying women less than men, giving women smaller raises and promoting them less frequently, the New York Times Reported.

The class consists of women who worked at 3,4000 Wal-Mart stores since 2001, which some estimate to be over 1 million women, the Washington Post reported. Wal-Mart estimates the number to be roughly 500,000.

The plaintiffs said 65 percent of Wal-Marts hourly employees were women, but only 33 percent of the company's managers were women., the New York Times reported.