Equal Work, Equal Pay

Equal pay advocate Lilly Ledbetter will recount her story of discrimination at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and the subsequent legal battle that resulted in the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Her experience resonates with women everywhere who continue to struggle for equity in the workplace. A question-and-answer period with the audience and a book signing will follow the lecture. For 10 years, Lilly Ledbetter fought to close the gap between women's and men's wages, sparring with the Supreme Court, lobbying Capitol Hill in a historic discrimination case against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Ledbetter won a jury verdict of more than $3 million after having filed a gender pay discrimination suit in federal court, but the U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the lower court's ruling. Despite her defeat, Ledbetter continued her fight until the Supreme Court decision was nullified when President Obama, on January 29, 2009, signed into law the first new law of his administration: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. She is the author of the book, Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond (Crown Archetype; 2012). The annual Vivian R. Shaw Lecture is presented by the Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the Women's Studies Department to address "real world" issues affecting women and/or gender. Cosponsors: The School of Social Work, Communications Studies, Ford School of Public Policy, Law School, American Culture, Political Science, and the Center for the Education of Women.