About the Program
Lily Ledbetter recounts her 19-year career at Goodyear Tire and her decision to file a sex discrimination suit against the company in 1998 over unequal pay. Ms. Ledbetter, a supervisor at the Goodyear Tire factory in Gadsden, Alabama, discovered that she was earning thousands of dollars less than her male colleagues. She recalls the ten years that her case was deliberated in the courts, which culminated in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision against her on the grounds that she should have filed her claim within 180 days after receiving her first paycheck that was unequal in pay. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg vocalized her dissent to the ruling from the bench and in 2009 President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay in Restoration Act , his first official bill signed as President. Lilly Ledbetter speaks with her co-author Lanier Scott Ison at the Gadsden Public Library in Gadsden, Alabama.