Fair Pay Icon Lilly Ledbetter Wows the NOW Crowd

July 23, 2008

Staff and interns share their impressions of equal pay champion Lilly Ledbetter, who attended three days of NOW events in Washington, D.C., July 17 through 19.

Pat Reuss, Senior Policy Analyst:

It was just one of those moments. The NOW board was meeting on Thursday, July 17, right before our Intrepid Gala that night and our annual national conference that weekend. It was time for my report and I stood up with the latest version of NOW's alert on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, intending to wave it around and exhort our board to try just a little harder to get a few more senators to support this effort. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a woman with a demure smile and intense gaze - Lilly Ledbetter herself, at our board meeting. She loved the board's standing ovation and then proceeded to spell out just which senators they needed to contact. Sigh...a lobbyist's dream.

And that kicked off NOW's great adventure with Lilly Ledbetter. She came to the Intrepid Awards Gala that evening and cheered as NOW honored our fearless, courageous and bold award winners. When she was introduced from the audience, there was another standing ovation; and at the end of the evening Intrepid Award Winner and CBS Anchor Katie Couric asked to meet her!

Katie Couric and Lilly Ledbetter, Intrepid Gala

Two courageous women: Katie Couric and Lilly Ledbetter at the 2008 Intrepid Gala awards.

Susan Stanton and Alex Cooperstock, Policy Interns:

Throughout the entire weekend, National NOW conference attendees saw Lilly walking through hallways and perusing the exhibits -- she made time for everyone. This woman, who has tolerated so much discrimination from the Goodyear Tire company, the Supreme Court, and a Senate that is unable to pass fair pay legislation in her name, still has the courage and strength to speak out for what she believes in.

As Lilly walked down the hallways between plenaries and workshops, people yelled her name and stopped to thank her for all her work. What was her reply? She would just calmly smile and turn to them to say: "No, thank you for all of your work." We were truly in awe of her as she connected and shared stories with NOW women who had faced similar situations.

As NOW summer policy interns, we were bubbling with excitement all weekend and kept a running commentary going about our latest conversation with Lilly. It's wonderful when the NOW conference showcases brave and driven women that help to support our cause. Lilly exemplified these qualities, but she also showed us and all of our other sisters at the conference that she is just a woman like the rest of us, fighting for a cause that she believes in.

It invigorates our faith in the feminist movement when we see women making waves and standing up for change. Lilly Ledbetter is just like all other women who have faced pay discrimination in their life, even if it was unbeknownst to them. She stood up to the discrimination and called her employers out, ultimately losing in the Supreme Court. It breaks our hearts knowing that girls and women will face the problems that Lilly and millions of other women have faced for the rest of their lives -- unless we do something NOW.

Lilly's personable presence this weekend really brought home the issue of fair pay to us and reconfirmed our need to storm into the offices of our senators for Lilly and for all women. These senators hold the power to control the future of equal pay for all women in their hands, and we need to demand that they take action to give us all an equal future. Thank you, Lilly, for coming to the NOW conference, for inspiring us and for putting a face and a real person behind our advocacy for fair pay.

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