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Lilly Ledbetter, who died on Oct. 12, was a former Alabama factory manager whose lawsuit against her employer made her an icon of the equal pay movement and led to landmark wage discrimination legislation.

Ms. Ledbetter鈥檚 discovery that she was earning less than her male counterparts for doing the same job at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Alabama led to her lawsuit, which ultimately failed when the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that she had filed her complaint too late. The court ruled that workers must file lawsuits within six months of first receiving a discriminatory paycheck 鈥� in Ms. Ledbetter鈥檚 case, years before she learned about the disparity through an anonymous letter.

Two years later, former President Barack Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which gave workers the right to sue within 180 days of receiving each discriminatory paycheck, not just the first one.

Ms. Ledbetter continued campaigning for equal pay policies for the rest of her life. Last week, she was awarded the Future Is Female Lifetime Achievement Award by Advertising Week, and a film about her life starring Patricia Clarkson premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival.

鈥淪he lost her case and she never saw a dime but she was a tireless advocate for all of us,鈥� said Deborah Vagins, director of Equal Pay Today and the national campaign director of Equal Rights Advocates.

鈥淓very now then, once in a generation, you meet these people who sacrifice everything for something even if it never benefits them,鈥� added Ms. Vagins, who met Ms. Ledbetter and introduced her to then Sen. Obama soon after the Supreme Court ruling galvanized the movement for what would become the Ledbetter Act.

鈥淪he sparked a movement and changed the face of pay equity forever,鈥� she said.

In January, President Joe Biden marked the 15th anniversary of the law named after Ms. Ledbetter with new measures to help close the gender wage gap, including a new rule barring the federal government from considering a person鈥檚 current or past pay when determining their salary.

But Ms. Ledbetter and other advocates have long campaigned for the more comprehensive Paycheck Fairness Act, which would strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963, including by protecting workers from retaliation for discussing their pay.

In a statement on Oct. 14, Vice President Kamala Harris pledged to 鈥渃ontinue to fight for the Paycheck Fairness Act 鈥� to honor Lilly鈥檚 legacy, and continue building a more fair and equitable future for women, and all Americans.鈥� Republican lawmakers largely oppose the law as redundant and conducive to frivolous lawsuits.

Mr. Obama also praised Ms. Ledbetter鈥檚 legacy said in statement that 鈥渢his grandmother from Alabama kept on fighting until the day I signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law 鈥� my first as president.鈥� Mr. Biden said in a statement that 鈥渋t was an honor to stand with Lilly as the bill that bears her name was made law鈥� when he was vice president.

Also among those paying tribute to Ms. Ledbetter was Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who said on the social media platform X that she 鈥渇orever changed my understanding with the simple but powerful phrase, 鈥楨qual pay for equal work.鈥欌��

The team behind the film, 鈥淟ILLY,鈥� issued a statement of condolence on social media. In her own statement, Ms. Clarkson said 鈥減ortraying Lilly Ledbetter was the privilege of my lifetime.鈥�

The sense of urgency among advocates deepened after an annual report from the Census Bureau last month found that the gender wage gap between men and women widened for the first time 20 years. In 2023, women working full time earned 83 cents on the dollar compared with men, down from 84 cents in 2022.

Even before then, advocates had been frustrated that wage gap improvement had mostly stalled for the last 20 years despite women making gains in the C-suite and earning college degrees at a faster rate than men. Experts say the reasons for the enduring gap are multifaceted, including the overrepresentation of women in lower-paying industries and the weak child care system that pushes many women to step back from their careers in their peak earnings years.

In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Ms. Ledbetter wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times detailing the harassment she faced as a manager at the Goodyear factory and drawing a link between workplace sexual harassment and pay discrimination.

Ms. Ledbetter had worked at the plant in Gadsden, Alabama, for 19 years when she received an anonymous note saying she was being paid significantly less than three male colleagues.

Two years before she was set for retirement, she filed a lawsuit in 1999 and initially won $3.8 million in backpay and damages from a federal court. She never received the money after eventually losing her case before the Supreme Court. But a dissenting opinion from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who stated that the 鈥渂all is in Congress鈥� court,鈥� inspired Ms. Ledbetter to keep up the fight for better laws.

At the Forbes Women鈥檚 Summit in 2021, Ms. Ledbetter said one of the achievements she was most proud of was that the Ledbetter act passed with bipartisan support.

The law set an important precedent 鈥渇or ensuring that we don鈥檛 just have the promise of equal pay on the books but we have a way to enforce the law,鈥� said Emily Martin, chief program officer at the National Women鈥檚 Law Center, which worked closely with Ms. Ledbetter.

鈥淪he is really an inspiration in showing us how a loss does not mean you can鈥檛 win,鈥� Ms. Martin said. 鈥淲e know her name because she lost, and she lost big, and she kept coming back from it and kept working until the day she died to change that loss into real gains for women across the country.鈥�

Ms. Ledbetter died surrounded by loved ones, according to a brief statement from her family and an obituary sent by the team behind a film about her life. She is survived by her two children, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

This story was reported by The Associated Press.聽AP Writer Kaitlyn Huamani in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

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