PEORIA -- She lost the court case but changed the law.
"I won the war in the long run," Lilly Ledbetter told a Bradley University audience on Sept. 17.
Ledbetter, 75, attractive, charming and a fine inspirational speaker, fought the system until the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 was signed by President Barack Obama.
The law makes it easier for women who have experienced discrimination in their paychecks to sue and win.
Ledbetter told her unlikely story, which began with her birth in a cabin with no running water or electricity in rural Alabama. She landed a job a manager at Goodyear Tire and Rubber at Gadsden, Ala., and had a successful career except for one huge problem. She learned she was paid less than the men doing the same work, 40 percent less. That affected not only her take home pay but her retirement and Social Security benefits.
She knew that kind of discrimination was illegal, and sued, and initially won. But the US Supreme Court finally ruled against her, saying that she had not complained soon enough to collect back pay, a technicality that cost her dearly.
So she became a lobbyist, and persuaded both Republicans and Democrats in Congress to pass a law to remedy the technicality.
Along the way she was smeared, lied about, and branded as a troublemaker, she said. No matter, she knew what she was doing was right.
She credited many people and groups for helping her and creating the conditions that enabled the legislation to pass. Men have supported her cause, she said, because they have mothers, wives and daughters.
She never got a penny out of the court case, she said, but has written a book, and films of her story are under consideration. She's become a celebrity, a public speaker. "I have learned a lot," she said.
She knows "the fight is not over," that women still earn less than men. That's where the younger generation should step up, she said."We must fight on all fronts. It's up to you."
She urged her large student audience to get into politics and "get this country on the right road."
"When we see injustice, do we sit and do nothing, or do we fight back?" she asked.
"Remember your history and where you come from. Make a difference and get involved," she said.
She got a standing ovation, well deserved.
-- Elaine Hopkins
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