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Albany, NY – Workplace rights have been in the news a lot lately, with a recent Supreme Court decision in the case of Ledbetter versus Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Lilly Ledbetter worked as a supervisor at Goodyear Tire plant in Alabama for nineteen years. By the time she retired in 1998, she made significantly less than her 15 male counterparts at the plant. So, a few weeks after retiring, she filed a lawsuit for pay discrimination based on her gender. Her lawyers argued that she had the right to backpay and damages, since she filed the suit less than 180 days after her last paycheck from Goodyear. The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the final decision, saying that Ledbetter should have filed her lawsuit within 180 days of being hired or being evaluated, instead of relying on a paycheck as evidence of discrimination. It was a controversial decision, one that has women's employment advocates up in arms. Marisa Tirona is policy director for the National Employment Lawyers' Association. I spoke with Tirona about her response to the Ledbetter case.
Federal legislators are taking notice of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg's dissent in the Ledbetter versus Goodyear case. One of them is Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, a freshman congresswoman who represents upstate New York. I sat down with Gillibrand to talk about being a woman in Congress and to get her reaction to the Ledbetter case. We met at Eleanor Roosevelt's home of Valkill in Hyde Park, New York.
The transition from college to the work world can be tough, especially for young women who want to appear professional but don't want to lose their personalities in the process. That's just one element of the workplace that Hannah Seligson explores in her book New Girl on the Job. Seligson learned about challenges of the work-world the hard way. She was fired from her first job after graduating from Brown University. 51%'s Jen Nathan spoke with Seligson about the lesson's she's learned.
Former public relations executive Joan Ball successfully navigated her way into a high-powered career. But when her personal life started requiring more attention, she re-evaluated her priorities.