Company executives, between celebrity performances at the yearly cheering session, told of strict diversity goals but also said the company was working to change its stores to better meet the desires of female shoppers, who spend more time in the aisles than men. The company outlined different ways it plans to build on revenues that reached $288 billion last fiscal year.

Scott drew two standing ovations during the meeting, but feminist leader Martha Burk was applauded, too.

Shareholders and workers clapped when Burk, chairwoman of the National Council of Women's Organizations, said Wal-Mart can do better than having only two women on its 14-member board. She was applauded again after her presentation of a shareholder resolution calling for a breakdown by race and gender of distribution of Wal-Mart stock options.

"We want to be sure there is not an equity glass ceiling in our company. Wal-Mart has the opportunity to break new ground in shareholder information," said Burk, who characterized herself as a second-generation Wal-Mart shareholder.

Scott drew much louder applause from the estimated 18,000 people at Bud Walton Arena on the University of Arkansas campus when he closed the meeting with a pledge that the company would continue to battle its critics. The group Wake-Up Wal-Mart is working to organize individuals to rally the company to provide better pay and health benefits. Another group, Wal-Mart Watch, used a phone bank before the meeting to call Bentonville-area residents to ask if they knew of any wrongdoing within the company, drawing a rebuke from Wal-Mart.

"A coalition of labor unions and others are spending $25 million to do whatever they have to do to damage this company," Scott said, calling the effort one of the "most organized, most sophisticated" efforts ever mounted against a company.

"That means we'll continue to be judged by a higher standard than any other company. That's just the way it is," Scott said. "And that makes it more important than ever that we focus on doing the right things and doing things right, every time."

Paul Blank, director of Wake-Up Wal-Mart said Scott failed to own up to Wal-Mart's shortcomings and renewed a call for Wal-Mart to provide better pay and health benefits.

"On behalf of the American people, we will continue to expose the truth about Wal-Mart until the day Wal-Mart changes and does the right thing," Blank said in a statement.

Another challenge is lifting the company's share price, which has fallen 20 percent since 2004. Shares fell 31 cents to close at $47.91 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, where they've had a 52-week range of $46.20 to $57.89.

Scott said Wal-Mart is committed to keeping its core customers who need Wal-Mart to stay within their budgets but said he wants more middle-class shoppers to buy clothing and items for the home that they now walk past while they buy food and paper towels. He also said he wants to reach a third category — people with good incomes who never shop at Wal-Mart.