Cuninggim Lecture on Women in Culture and Society

Lilly Ledbetter to Give the 2012 Cuninggim Lecture

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Equal pay activist Lilly Ledbetter to deliver Cuninggim Lecture on Women in Culture and Society March 13 at Vanderbilt University

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Longtime Alabama Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company employee Lilly Ledbetter did not set out to be an activist, but her fight for equal pay went all the way to the Supreme Court and in 2009 led to President Barack Obama’s signing The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act – it was the first bill he signed into law. Ledbetter brings her story to Vanderbilt University, Tuesday, March 13.

Ledbetter will give a talk, “Grace and Grit: My Experience with Equal Pay for Equal Work,” as the 2012 Cuninggim Lecture on Women in Culture and Society. The event is free and open to the public, and will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Student Life Center’s Board of Trust Room.

The Cuninggim Lecture is endowed through the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center at Vanderbilt University.

Nineteen years after she began employment with Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Ledbetter discovered that she was earning far less than her male counterparts for the same work. After eight years of appeals, her case was heard in the Supreme Court, where in a 5–4 vote she lost on a technicality. While she will never be entitled to receive the pay denied her during the many years she worked for Goodyear, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act enacted by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Obama in 2009 is designed to prevent future inequities by expanding workers’ rights to sue in this kind of case, relaxing the statute of limitations.

Ledbetter’s new book, Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond, debuts this month, and shares for the first time publically the story of her hardscrabble upbringing in Possum Trot, Ala., the hard work and ambition it took to earn her dream job at Goodyear, and the details of the daily sexual harassment she faced as a female supervisor in a male-dominated environment.

Part of the Office of the Dean of Students, the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center offers a space for the entire Vanderbilt community to gather, nurture and support one another, as well as celebrate women’s achievements. The center develops and presents programs about gender and women’s issues, enhances women’s practical skills and fosters creative expression.

For more information on this event or the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center, please contact Kayce Matthews, associate director, at kayce.matthews@vanderbilt.edu or (615) 322-4843.

For more news about Vanderbilt, visit Vanderbilt’s News Network at news.vanderbilt.edu.

About the Lecture Series

Every spring, the Women’s Center hosts the annual Cuninggim Lecture on Women in Culture and Society.  Started in 1986, this endowed lecture series features experts from around campus and around the world.  Recent keynote speakers have included Jessica Valenti, author of The Purity Myth, and Daisy Hernandez, editor of Colorlines. It was named for Margaret Cuninggim, for whom the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center is also named.

As part of the Cuninggim Lecture, the Women’s Center presents the annual Mentoring Award and Mary Jane Werthan Award to honor individuals making a difference for women on campus.

To suggest a speaker for the upcoming lecture, please contact the Women’s Center.