Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond

by Lilly Ledbetter

Paperback, 2013

Status

Available

Genres

Biography & Memoir

General Nonfiction

Biography

Politics, Government, Law and Public Policy

Nonfiction

History

Publication

Three Rivers Press (2013), Edition: 1/27/13, 288 pages

Description

In 1998, after the author had spent 19 grueling years working at a Goodyear plant, an anonymous note showed her that she made 40 per cent less than her male counterparts. So began her decade-long legal battle for equal pay, a story she tells movingly and frankly. After a hardscrabble childhood in a small Alabama community, she knew a job at the nearby Goodyear plant meant lifelong financial stability. In 1979 as a manager there, she found men reluctant to take orders from a woman, and faced blatant sexual harassment (a performance review ended with a solicitation). She tried to take it in stride, but the stress took a mental and physical toll. Goodyear continually transferred her between departments, citing poor performance, but failed to produce evidence when she requested it. After discovering the anonymous note, she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, leading to her landmark discrimination lawsuit under Title VII and the Equal Pay Act. While she lost the case on appeal (a decision upheld by the Supreme Court), the experience prompted her to become a spokesperson for equal pay. In January 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, a satisfying coda to this inspiring tale.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member carterchristian1

If the Supreme Court had not included this case on the short list of cases it hears, if Ginsberg had not been on the court and made public her objection to the verdict against Ledbetter, and perhaps if Obama had not learned of her case when he was still in the Senate this important woman would

probably not have come to media attention and in asense had another career after Goodyear, advocating for women in the workplace. This is a simjple book telling of a marriage from age 17 to her husband's death after 53 years. It is an important contribution to wonen's literature.

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LibraryThing member theageofsilt

There's plenty in this book to make you mad - the author, Lilly Ledbetter, begins a career at Goodyear because she needs the money. She is bright, committed and hardworking and is saddled with a torrent of harassment. Some of it is overt sexual harassment and, just as often, it is being downgraded

in her reviews as a manager or blamed for errors, just because she is female. When she discovers that she is paid almost 40% less than her male peers, she brings a discrimination suit that ends up in the Supreme Court. In a true stroke of idiocy, the Court opines that she should have brought suit when the discrimination first occurred, even though, in the real world, information about pay levels is confidential. As infuriating as her mistreatment at Goodyear is on a human level, if I were a shareholder, I would be furious as well. Time and time again, the good of the company is ignored by managers who are more interested in making her look bad than fostering efficiency. Mrs. Ledbetter wants to do her job well and help the company and is thwarted. It is Goodyear's loss. This book is a pleasure to read and Mrs. Ledbetter is a admirable character with a tenaciousness that borders on mule-like stubbornness. Beyond the issue of discrimination, the memoir recounts her difficult relationship with her mother and a warm and frank account of her marriage to Charles.

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LibraryThing member abycats

Starts haltingly, but builds to a detailed and fascinating memoir by a fairly ordinary woman who excels in tenacity. Because of Lily Leadbetter, other women have the continuing opportunity to fight employers who pay them less. More importantly, legislation forcing equal pay for equal work has a

real chance at passage. It's easy to forgive any faults with this book when realizing Ms Leadbetter's importance to all women in the United States.

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