Athens State hosts International Women's Day event

Mar. 8—Athens State celebrated International Women's Day with a breakfast held at the Sandridge Hall ballroom with Lilly Ledbetter as the keynote speaker.

"I told my pastor when I die, I want him to be able to say at my funeral that I made a difference," Ledbetter said.

Ledbetter has been an equal pay activist since the early 2000s.

She was the plaintiff in the United States Supreme Court case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. regarding employment discrimination, setting off a wave of change and opening a dialogue across the nation.

In 1979, Ledbetter took a job at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Gadsden, Alabama.

Ledbetter was an overnight supervisor for the company. When she first began, she made the same wage as her male peers, but by the end of the career she made less than any of her male coworkers in the same position.

Right before Ledbetter retired, an anonymous person tipped her off to the pay discrepancies between her and her colleagues by leaving her a note listing the pay of her other coworkers, leading her to discover she was paid considerably less than them.

Ledbetter filed a formal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and later initiated a lawsuit alleging pay discrimination.

The formal lawsuit claimed pay discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

The jury awarded Ledbetter compensation, but Goodyear appealed the ruling.

The U.S. Supreme Court determined that employers cannot be sued under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act if the claims are based on decisions made by the employer more than 180 days ago.

This caused Ledbetter to not receive compensation from the court.

In 2009, former President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law.

Following Ledbetter's address, the "Panel with Pizzazz" was held.

Panelists included: Donna Coleman, LaJoy Johns, Bailey Lee, Vishwa Parikh, U'Meeka Smith (moderator).

"As a university that began as a female academy, we have deep roots empowering women and celebrating their accomplishments. We enjoyed welcoming Lilly Ledbetter as she discussed her long journey through the court system in lobbying for equal pay and equal rights," Chris Latham, ASU's director of communications, said. "Similarly, our panel, composed of Athens State alumni who are leaders in their various industries, discussed biases and barriers they've faced and overcome. It was a great morning of celebrating the special women who shape our society."