After the Supreme Court decertified their class-action status in Dukes v. Walmart in 2011, some 2,000 current and former female employees of Wal-Mart have filed pay and promotion discrimination claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), enabling them to file individual lawsuits against the retailer. The claims were filed in every state except Montana and Vermont.

This past year SCOTUS reversed certification of 1.5 million women in the Dukes v. Walmart lawsuit, claiming that the grouping had too little in common to represent a class. The EEOC filings are in response to that decision.

Women in the Texas and California regions have already filed for regional class-action status against Wal-Mart, and it appears that the regional, rather than individual, approach will prevail nationwide. Wal-Mart will now be forced to fight a legal battle on many stages rather than one had Dukes v. Walmart been allowed to go forward.