FILE – In this April 30, 2012, file photo, Lily Ledbetter, left, speaks in Concord, New Hampshire, as President Barack Obama and his allies in the Senate pushed for a call Tuesday The Equal Pay in the Workplace Act is an election-year effort to combine the political appeal of women with the issue that matters most to all voters: cash in their wallets after the recession. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)
Jim Cole
feminist activist Lily Ledbetter He has died, according to family representatives. She is 86 years old.
Ledbetter, known for her advocacy for equal pay for women, died Saturday night of respiratory failure. She was born and raised in Alabama.
“She was surrounded by family and loved ones,” her family said in a statement on Sunday. “Our mother lived an extraordinary life.”
Ledbetter’s fight for equal pay began in the 1990s, when she received an anonymous letter This suggests that she was paid significantly less than her male colleagues with similar or less qualifications and experience, where she worked as a regional supervisor for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Gadsden, Alabama.
“I took a job that was generally considered a man’s job. I don’t agree with that term,” Ledbetter told Forbes in 2019. , they deserve the job, and they deserve the money.
Thus began a years-long legal battle that escalated all the way to the Supreme Court. Ledbetter ultimately lost her case against Goodyear, with the High Court ruling that she missed the deadline to file her claim. But Democrats in Congress, spurred by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent, pushed to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act ).
The bill makes it easier for victims of pay discrimination to file lawsuits, relaxing statutes of limitations that previously favored companies.
President Barack Obama, accompanied by Lily Ledbetter (left) and other women, signs a bill banning federal contracting during an event commemorating Equal Pay Day in the East Room of the White House on April 8, 2014. Executive Order on Business Retaliation against Employees in Washington, DC.
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The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act became the first bill signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009.
Former President and First Lady Michelle Obama said in a statement on Sunday: “Lily did what so many Americans before her had done: set higher goals for herself, Descendants set higher goals “Michelle and I are grateful for her advocacy and friendship, and we send our love and prayers to her family and all who continue the fight she started. “
Last week, Ledbetter won an Adweek award The First “The Future Is Female” Lifetime Achievement Awardhonoring the achievements of female trailblazers. A film about her life, “Lily” Starring Patricia Clarkson The film starring Ledbetter also recently premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
