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The inspiring story of the woman at the center of the historic discrimination case that inspired the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, her fight for equal rights in the workplace, and how her determination became a victory for the nationLilly Ledbetter always knew that she was destined for something more than what she was born into: a house with no running water or electricity in the small town of Possum Trot, Alabama. In 1979, when Lilly applied for her dream job at the Goodyear tire factory, she got the job. She was one of the first women hired at the management level. Nineteen years after her first day at Goodyear, Lilly received an anonymous note revealing that she was making thousands less per year than the men in her position. When she filed a sex-discrimination case against Goodyear, Lilly won--and then heartbreakingly lost on appeal. Over the next eight years, her case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where she lost again. But Lilly continuted to fight, becoming the namesake of President Barack Obama's first official piece of legislation. Both a deeply inspiring memoir and a powerful call to arms, Grace and Grit is the story of a true American icon.
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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 andfrankly. 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.
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