Lilly Ledbetter, equal pay and women's rights activist, dies at 86
Source: NBC News
Oct. 14, 2024, 10:59 AM EDT
Women's rights activist Lilly Ledbetter has died, according to a family representative. She was 86. Ledbetter, best known for advocating for equal pay for women, died as a result of respiratory failure on Saturday night. She was in Alabama, where she was born and raised. She was surrounded by her family and loved ones," her family said in a statement on Sunday. "Our mother lived an extraordinary life."
Ledbetter's fight for equal pay started in the 1990s, when she received an anonymous letter that said she was being paid far less than her male colleagues who had similar, or less, seniority and experience at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Gadsden, Alabama, where she worked as an area supervisor.
I took a job that had normally been considered a mans job. I dont agree with that term, Ledbetter said in an interview with Forbes in 2019. Its a job. Whether its a man, African American, Latino, heavy, skinny, whatever. If theyre the best qualified for that job, they should get it, and they should get the money to go with it.
Thus began years of legal battles that climbed all the way to the Supreme Court. Ledbetter ultimately lost the lawsuit against Goodyear, with the high court ruling she had missed the deadline for filing her claim. But Democrats in Congress urged on by a dissenting opinion from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/lilly-ledbetter-equal-pay-womens-rights-activist-dies-86-rcna175271
Wow. R.I.P. and this should REALLY BE a rallying cry for women everywhere!
Pachamama
(17,013 posts)Rest in Power Lilly and thank you!!!!
FailureToCommunicate
(14,324 posts)She was there, and it was a hard fought but happy milestone!
.webp
Oopsie Daisy
(4,500 posts)groundloop
(12,262 posts)I'm an engineer and have been around the block a few times, that plant was the worst managed plant I've ever been in. It closed at the start of the pandemic (it was in the process of being closed even before the pandemic hit, Goodyear used the pandemic as an excuse to speed up the process), and all production from that plant was moved to Mexico.
slightlv
(4,325 posts)at least, of we women, should vote in Lily Ledbetter's name, as well as in support of our own equal rights. As one who started early in her career in a "mans job"... and got paid through the years far, far less than my male counterparts every freaking single time, let me tell you, Lily was my hero. The fact she's the only other person I knew (besides my mom and great-grandma) who was named Lily, only more endeared her to me.