This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, June 26, 2009 - Lily Ledbetter, the worker whose pay-discrimination case played a role in last year's presidential contest, is headlining this weekend's convention downtown of the AAUW.
Known until recently by its original full name -- American Association of University Women -- the AAUW is expecting close to 1,000 women from around the country at the three-day gathering, which runs through Sunday at the Renaissance Grand hotel.
Ledbetter is slated to speak at this afternoon's opening session, which also will feature St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green.
Ledbetter reflects well the convention's theme, "Breaking Through Barriers,'' and its focus on various advances by women -- and obstacles -- in the workplace, education, sports, politics and civil rights.
Ledbetter filed suit several years ago when, after her November 1998 retirement, she learned that she had been paid less than men performing in her same job. She won a jury trial and was awarded back pay and other remedies.
But in 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that decision in a 5-4 ruling that changed the interpretation of pay-equity laws. This January, Congress approved the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which became the first bill signed into law by newly-inaugurated President Barack Obama. He had made her case on his issues in last year's contest against Republican John McCain, who had defended the Supreme Court's decision.
On Saturday, the convention is holding a forum featuring some top women corporate executives. Several women members of Congress, including Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Jackie Speier, D-Calif.
Earlier this week, conventioneers who showed up a day early got a local tour that focused on historic women from St. Louis who were active in the women's suffrage movement. They included Virginia Louisa Minor, who was the plaintiff in an 1875 U.S. Supreme Court case in which Minor unsuccessfully argued that women already should have the right to vote under the Constitution's 14th Amendment. She died in 1894, several decades before the 19th Amendment actually granted women the right to cast ballots.
