Have 2 million. When Lilly Ledbetter discovered that no Aspen Institute years at goodyear she was making 40 less than three other areas managers doing the same job. 200,000 in her career, that was not taken into consideration for retirement and social security. For women of color the it is larger. In 2010 africanamerican women were earning 67. 7 to everymans dollar and Hispanic Women 58. 7 of all mens earnings. Lilly ledbetters story is everyones story. There are sixty million working women in the work force, two thirds are mothers bringing home their familys earnings. In many cases women ought sold breadwinners. From wall street to walmart it doesnt matter where you work, women are discriminated in the work force and that is a very broad statistical picture of the wage gap and Lilly Ledbetter is the poster child for the wage gap whether she wanted to or not. Here is her story from her point of view and that is just one womans experience. What we did is we put a lot of information in the back of the book about the paycheck fairness act which still needs to be passed and about hay equity and the wage gap. If you read the story you also have that which you look at as a resource for your own needs. We hope things will change. We will open it up for questions. I will give you two answers right of. I do not know who gave me the note because what happened, i got in the mail the latest evaluation sheet anonymously mailed so i dont know who gave it to me, where it came from and you would be interested to know goodyear could not produce my first file. One of my bosses said he thought they burned and the judge came across that bench and said that explain the law to you goodyear attorneys. When a person files they charge you are required by law to retain those records until it is closed but they could not produce it and so it wasnt there but that is all we had other than our pay records, my attorney could finally get from goodyear. I dont know who gave me the note and i dont buy goodyear tires. I do not. If i buy a vehicle and it has the my get rid of them immediately. One thing that is interesting to point out, you spend over a decade fighting the battle and when you got to court in 2003, the number of legal documents that the case generated, if you stack it up it would be three stories high. It is hard to understand what someone really goes through and how much time, effort, energy, heartbreak, sorrow, experience standing up for what is right. I am the type of individual like it and let it go. It was not right. I could not let it go. The law was on my side and all the outcry against the Supreme Court about this ruling until the next ridiculous case that came about something similar was the lady who filed a charge of equal employment and it was on the wrong form or wrong date or something and should not have been let go but it is okay, let that one go. Those shots were not called but that is my opinion. She is right. It was a long fight and hard on individuals, hard on their families. We could not leave home like on a vacation or go on a trip without revising the attorney where we were and how we could be reached. For ten years. It took me nine years to get my final verdict. I told my husband took nine years and it actually took 18 months to get the bill changed. Why did you tell them eight . What were you thinking . I read the headlines. You dont see indications in the paper of a quick fix. They drag, in the last three years, the equal Employment Commission has doubled down and they have more money. I do a lot of work with them now. One thing they are doing is going around training cities and county and governments that dont bring in official people or train them on what they should be doing and they go in and train those people and therefore they dont make these mistakes. Theyre doing a lot of preventive work as well as if you check the paper periodically you will see a large sum that they have won from an individual. They get it all, that person does. The government doesnt keep any of it. In my case when i talk about money, that 360, had the Supreme Court awarded me like they should have, my attorney i had to pay federal and state tax on all of it in lieu of wages. I would have had less than 50,000 and spent 40 of my own money. Wasnt a complete washout. I have already spent 40,000 and i worked every weekend getting ready to go to trial and i was there for every deposition. I think you will enjoy the book. If you working a plan now or worked there or you know somebody that worked there with a lot of you do, you are going to say i knew that. I saw that. You really will. How about questions . I am sure you have something you would like to ask. I have a comment. I think it is extraordinary that you have spent as much time as you have to do this the cause a lot of people would not have done it. And i think we all need to take a lesson from that and i think not on the issue of womens pay, but i am concerned about lot of people trying to stop them from voting. You are right. And we all need to be concerned about that. That is true. I commend you for all you have done. We have a question over here. We did ask that you talk in the mike when you ask a question so everybody can hear. This is a double question for you. The date that the Supreme Court grade its decision i would like to know what you felt. I would also like to know how you felt the day president obama signed the law. Great question. The day i heard the verdict my husband and i started a Singing Group that the church. When i got the call, we thought we would go have lunch and golan our merry way. The media started calling and lawyers said you dont have to respond but i didnt have anything to be embarrassed so if they call us come on in and we opened the door and they came in, video and reported and Hank Williams that night with a hook up, did questions and the next day cnn came and it was one media radio norman lear called that night and said i will send do you know how i am . Yes, you made the jeffersons and all in the family. That is what i remember. We videoed all day. It is still running, some of the money youtube. You cant believe what you see on tv because they read around your house, take your phones and the dining room table and coffee table and a cake and i say i dont think so, i logged 3. 8 million and you want me to make a cake . He said you got a coffeemaker. My husband is retired military. He is the big coffee person. They had to pour it out and make some more. When we went to the white house for the bill they called me and said you does your daughter wants to come . We had both been on the train trip with the obamas and the bidens and i said i will call her and the lady who called set i have to get her cleared and it is not easy so let me know quick. I called my daughter at 6 00 a. M. In the morning, and in another are she called back saying you get five of us in. I was so embarrassed, my soninlaw and my grandson, i got that much swing. We went in that house, walked up the gate that morning and all those women and men, you would have thought i was a rock star. My grandson was this big looking at me saying they have never been involved in any of this. We get into the white house and they pulled me out separate and meeting all the people and signed the bill, that was an awesome walk down the red carpet. The feeling i had because i had prayed so hard, youre not supposed to pray for personal things like that but i had prayed that would send a message. It was the first bill he signed into law. I was the second one that got to dance with him at the neighborhood. Theres a picture in the hardback Washington Post and you can get them on line. While we were revers he said we are going to do this. I knew he wasnt talking about dancing. He was talking about the Lilly Ledbetter bill. We are going to do this. He saw it through and got it done and it went through and he signed it but when that can hit that paper it meant so much to so many. That was what went through my mind, all of you working out there today, that you have that right and you find out ten years from now you have been discriminated against and file that charge in 180 days. It was an awesome feeling and we went into the reception and that was the first one they had done since they got there and that was the first time the womens groups in washington had been to the white house in eight years, eight years. They had not been there. They have all refreshments set up and i looked at all those dishes and the food and i sure did what some, they told my daughters family you cant move. If you do you lose your seat. My daughter said get coffee and the white house and it was neat to be there and Hillary Clinton came in and she was secretary of state, all of those politicians, republicans and democrats, those people standing behind me are republicans but i had three checks offered to me that day to run for office and i turned it down because i do more good going to college campuses, military bases, law schools and anywhere else. Monday, i addressed the assembly at the capitol in california. That was an awesome experience as well. I have been some places, three more years to another book, where i have been, it was happening because it has been real. The door is open and i had dinner in the hall monday night, Marshall Loeb who starred in fortune magazine. After looking at the chandeliers and all the things on the wall and on the floor, i participated in a fundraiser in new york. Not to give any money but being very creative lot of excitement, pictures, and i spoke, and spoke to the panel and went up the ladder to raise money to get women into politics and that was an awesome experience, so many boards. I have to do something on my list in 2010, justice ruth beta ginsberg, also the first ordinary citizen to testify for elena kagan when she was confirmed and i didnt take that lightly. I researched her, i knew had been at harvard and found out her background and looked her record up and supported her and i was the first to testify for her. It has been an awesome journey and everyone of those, when i did the thing on the counter, valerie jarrett, told me he was getting tired of getting me approved to get into the white house, he just got me a permanent pipe. A lot of people think i only want one time. I was supposed to have been there monday but already had a commitment in california and i have never missed a commitment yet. I had the flu once and tried to get over it but he said could you stand up at the podium for 15 minutes . We have people to montgomerie from birmingham and surrounding areas, got my cousin to drive me in, kept my record and missed one year. I am getting close. It is amazing. I got one in the back of the room. Who would you pick to play a part of Lilly Ledbetter . I would like to have merrill street. There will be a meeting with my attorney, im eating a movie producer from california. He is an alabama native, movies in this state and that is all i know about him and we have offers from tv channels to make movies but to hollywood, they will get meryl streep. If i had gone with the Publishing House at disney and abc, they have direct contact, meryl streep does a lot of work for women and has given oprah 1 million for the Womens Museum in washington d. C. The bill has been placed in the house. They are raising money. We dont have a Womens Museum in washington that she would be the one, a younger daughter to play that would be my choice but i dont think i will have much influence. We got questions right here . I would like to commend you for your tenacity from in everything you have done. And strengthen you in everything he has ordained for you to do. What i would like to ask is do you not say there is a paycheck fairness lot . The, are you receiving bipartisan support . Is it democrats, republicans, where has this data been and where is it being past . It will come up again and it will place, but what happened was it crinkles. Not really. If that had been the law when i was at goodyear and shortly after i could have found out because i did ask. Goodyear said they wished i had come to them first. I did. What my boss said, too much bs. They said the words, he said the exact words. I asked him from time to time to check and see about the top, the mid and bottom costofliving increase those figures, somebody at goodyear new. I dont know of john knew or not but he worked there. I didnt know. I dont know if anybody ever knew. I would say have you found out . He said i havent had time to check. They were not going to give me an answer. When i got the note i went straight to the boc because it was time to send paycheck fairness will come up again. The only reason it didnt was they had just gone back and and there was no republican going to cross that line, that two the other lady, i called them. They called me back. They called me at home. I sat up in washington and knocked on all those boards. In those days if you are a lawyer from the National Womens law center, maybe one or two others, we would call on congress, house people and the senate. In the beginning we only got the assistance. Now i can walk in the door. There is harry reid, i will see harry reid. If it is senator leahy from vermont i will see him. I have travelled across the country for each of those people. I have been to california for George Miller and thank him because it was his committee is named the law Lilly Ledbetter. I am told i am the only alabama with a long name for them. It is not common. There are less than 35 in history. I will be going back to Seattle Law School in seattle, washington, next month. Theres a lady there that has been doing research. This is not a common thing to have a law and is like congressman miller said, we dont blame them for people like you. We named them for ourselves, whoever they get drafted a bill. Any other questions . Vibrant to thank you. Before you got that note, did you suspicion, did you have any suspicion that you were not being paid . Common sense would tell me based on the treatment and a lot of other things you read in the book, commonsense told me they were not paying me what the men were being paid. I was a trailblazer. I dont think any woman last as long as i did in that job. When i got that note and saw how much less and calculating liar over time and retirement, i wasnt even in the ballpark. I was in a different game to tell you the truth. Divided in close it would have been okay because they did the change to the pay for performance. Every which way they wanted to give the money out basically. I did not know. I did not know or i would have filed a charge i can tell you. I filed a charge in the 80s to get my job back and keep from losing the job i had. That is our record too and is mentioned in the book as well. I knew the system. I knew where to go and how to file a charge and worked for h r block and those people and locations. This question is for Lanier Scott Isom. Can you go through the process of you with Lilly Ledbetter linking up and how many pages of notes you have from her . Thousands. Thousands. I met Lilly Ledbetter right after the bill was signed when there was a profile for statewide magazine. When she decided she wanted to do a book, she wanted an alabama rider and like the article lot. We had a natural sort of rapport and lowend the old we got together and started talking more Lilly Ledbetter started talking and i started listening and writing. It was tough because Lilly Ledbetter was traveling so much and we talk a lot on the phone and i did a lot of research, but it took a year of research and interviewing and writing the book proposal to sell the book. Nine months to finish the book can nine month for publication. That was the process. That is the picture on the bottom, birmingham photographer. Birmingham photographer alabama native. We did a tour and where i grew up and all that section on the video running right now. The family cemetery. Birmingham, and linear, it is not made a dime and not getting any advice and where we started together, by the time we got through, he went to washington the first time and sat behind me during the testimony and was so mad, so infuriated and when he came to do the trial, he wasnt sure how people in alabama would respect him or accept what he said so he brought one of the partners in the firm who was a short red head sort of sandy hair dye. John would get furious at him because he did not do what he wanted and he is one of those precise people who has been really good to me and when my husband died he was there, came to receiving that night. He has always been there for me. He went to washington for the bill signing. That is interesting too. He was in court and his wife, he had a system that worked. A plane ticket from atlanta to washington to baltimore because her mother lives in baltimore. She flew in theres a thousand dollar plane ticket waiting for you, you fly out there and go to that bill signing. He really had a good time. He enjoyed himself and got a lot out of people and it was good but somebody asked what he did for clothes. He said he didnt have a bag, but started at oxford. He had fresh clothes and it was good. He was hair, a Washington Attorney was there and cam russell went to italy with me because john was the first choice because he couldnt end court trial and he didnt go and his harvard student, he lost the biggest case of his life and won a trip to italy. I tell people i didnt pay him and he bought me a pair of italian leather shoes. It has really been interesting. A lot of places i go i dont have any money. I dont have any money that i get. I may speak to a group and when i leave they have 164,170 and a note for gas. I come out and people have taken care of me or god has, i dont know. Somebody told me god wasnt finished with my life and i guess he wasnt. When i went to good year they i university of alabama, a series of tests. Mine showed my number one job should have been politics, public speaking. I thought that was the funniest thing ive ever read. Now i tell College Students dont take those tests seriously. They mean something. If there are no other questions we will save you some books and sign some