Peoria, IL (September 10, 2013) Advocate Lilly Ledbetter, whose discrimination case led to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, will speak at Bradley University on September 17, at 7 p.m. in the Peplow Pavilion in the Hayden-Clark Alumni Center, located at 816 N. Tobias Lane. Admission is free and open to the public.

Ledbetter’s topic is “Grace and Grit: How I Won My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond.”

Ms. Ledbetter worked as a supervisor at a Goodyear tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama for 19 years. Toward the end of her career, she began to suspect that she wasn’t being paid as much as her male counterparts. Intent on facing the discrimination, she brought an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Complaint against Goodyear and won. Goodyear appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court, and in a 5-4 decision, the Court overturned the ruling.

After the decision, legal groups and Democrats worked to introduce a bill that was signed into law in January of 2009, a law that makes it easier for women who have experienced pay discrimination to fight back.

A tireless advocate for fair pay, Ledbetter has been a featured speaker at colleges, universities, conferences, and other groups around the country. She also has made frequent television appearances.

The lecture is the first in the 2013-14 Women, Gender and the Law Series presented by Bradley’s Women’s Studies Committee.