AAUW Honors the Legacy of Lilly Ledbetter

AAUW honors the recent passing of Lilly Ledbetter and her outstanding legacy, which will impact women well into the future. She was the pioneer of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 to ensure all women receive fair pay for their work. 

Ms. Ledbetter’s story resonated with so many women fighting for fair pay. After almost 20 years of working at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Ms. Ledbetter received a note revealing that she, the only female supervisor, was being paid 40 percent less than her male peers. Ms. Ledbetter filed a gender discrimination lawsuit in 1998 that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, only to have the court say in 2007 that she had been paid unfairly long enough to make it legal. 

Ms. Ledbetter and AAUW had a long-lasting, strong, and productive relationship, and we held her in high esteem as an unwavering icon and trailblazer in the fight for equal pay. Together, Ms. Ledbetter, AAUW, and countless other organizations advocating for equal pay participated in marches, wrote letters, and sent emails which motivated Congress to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009. Today, we continue her legacy by championing equal pay legislation such as the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would give workers new tools for ensuring that employers pay women and men equally for equal work. 

As Lilly said in a Q&A session with AAUW, “The gender pay gap is everybody’s issue.” Lilly Ledbetter never stopped fighting for gender pay equity. The laws at the time failed her and yet she never stopped advocating for better laws and better pay for women. In her memory and in her honor, AAUW vows to continue the fight.  

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AAUW (American Association of University Women) is the nation’s leading organization for equity in higher education and women’s economic empowerment.

Founded in 1881 by women who defied society’s conventions by earning college degrees, AAUW has since worked to increase women’s access, opportunity, and equity in higher education through research, advocacy, and philanthropy of over $146 million, supporting thousands of women scholars. Learn more at aauw.org.