"Lilly": Patricia Clarkson on playing equal pay activist Lilly Ledbetter
If you don't know the name Lilly Ledbetter, how's this for an introduction? "Lilly Ledbetter did not set out to be a trailblazer or a household name," said President Obama in 2009."She was a good hard worker who did her job, and she did it well for nearly two decades before discovering that for years she was paid less than her male colleagues for doing the very same work." Forty percent less, by most accounts.Now, a new film, "Lilly," starring Patricia Clarkson, chronicles Ledbetter's David-and-Goliath-type fight for equal pay against her employer, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, in Alabama.Asked what she knew about Ledbetter before reading the script, Clarkson replied, "Well, that she was one of the most remarkable human beings ever put on this Earth, a true, true American hero.
A grave injustice had been committed against her.But she was also dealing with misogyny, ageism.
But yet, she was this amazing manager.She rose."A female manager at a tire factory in the 1970s was almost unheard of.
But Ledbetter needed the money to help her husband support their two kids.In 1998, she found a list of names and salaries of her male counterparts, all of whom made far more than she did.
As the movie depicts, Ledbetter found an anonymous note, left for her in her locker, that detailed the pay discrepancies."And she was devastated," said her daughter, Vickie Ledbetter Saxon.
"She told me she didn't know how she was going to get through the shift.She was humiliated." Ledbetter filed suit, and was awarded $3.8 million in back pay and damages.
But a court of appeals overturned the verdict.She never saw a dime.
Her case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where a 5-4 ruling in favor of Goodyear stated that she had waited too long to file a discrimination claim (the statute of limitations was just 180 days)."She was extremely devastated by that," said Saxon."And I thought it was over, I really did."It wasn't.
By then, Ledbetter was nearly 70, and became a ...