The University of Alabama Huntsville’s College of Business hosted noted labor activist Lilly Ledbetter. Ledbetter, 84, spoke to a mixed crowd of university students and local Huntsville residents at Chan Auditorium.

During her hour-long talk, Ledbetter recounted her experience with gender pay discrimination while working as a supervisor for Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s plant in Gadsden, Alabama, a legal dispute that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and ultimately, the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

Ledbetter had worked for Goodyear for nineteen years. She only learned about the discrepancy between her pay and that of her male counterparts due to an anonymous note left for her. She filed suit against Goodyear, and won her initial case, but that ruling was reversed on appeal to the Eleventh Court. The Supreme Court took the case, and ruled against Ledbetter, on the grounds that she did not file suit within 180 days of the discriminatory taking effect – which is to say, within six months of her first taking the job, back in 1979.

The Supreme Court ruling against her effectively made it nearly impossible for employees to successfully argue discrimination at the workplace, as they would need to discern that it was occurring and file suit within six months of being hired.

Ledbetter was undeterred by the Supreme Court’s ruling, and continued to lobby for gender and pay equality at the workplace. She endorsed Barack Obama for President in the 2008 election. She explained that, while she didn’t have anything against his Republican opponent, the late Senator John McCain, her decision was made after he remarked on the case, suggesting that women needed “more training and education” to reach pay equity with men.

“Well,” Ledbetter told her audience at UAH last week, “I’d been doing the job for almost twenty years. I didn’t need more training. And one of the women who faced the same thing was a surgeon. So it was safe to say that education and training wasn’t the issue here.”

Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, he signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. The Lilly Ledbetter Act resets the 180-day clock on filing a discrimination suit every time a discriminatory paycheck was issued.

Ledbetter recounted her story at UAH with the sort of wry humor and humble authenticity that captivated the attention of the audience. She took great pride in the bipartisan support that the legislation that bears her name enjoyed in Congress, saying that “It isn’t a Democrat issue or a Republican issue, but a United States issue.”

She also spoke about her first encounter with workplace discrimination, in a lesser-known story. In 1983, her supervisor took her aside and demanded sexual favors from her, or else she would be fired. “I immediately left his office and I took a quarter – this is how long ago this was – and found a payphone. No way was I going to use Goodyear’s phone, and I called the EEOC [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission].”

Ledbetter reminisced about the suspicion that she faced afterwards.

“They – the other employees – thought that I had sued Goodyear for money,” she said. “But all I had done was to sue to get back the job I had already had.”

The famous activist had advice for the young women in the audience who may one day be called upon to advocate for fair treatment in the workplace: “You have to keep it on the professional level. You can’t let them make it personal. It’s about your value and worth as an employee, and about making sure that you’re treated fair.”

Her message resonated with the students and professionals who had come to hear her speak.

“I feel really lucky to have been able to hear her,” one female student told the Huntsville Business Journal after the talk. “I want to take what she’s done and build on it, to leave future women better off than I am. It’s really inspiring.”

Images provided by the University of Alabama in Huntsville.