Lilly Ledbetter is an American woman known for her role in advocating for equal pay for women. She worked for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for nearly 20 years and discovered that she was paid significantly less than her male counterparts for the same work. This realization led her to file a lawsuit against her employer, highlighting the issue of gender-based wage discrimination. Her case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007, but the court ruled against her due to the statute of limitations on filing pay discrimination claims. In response to her efforts, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law in 2009, which aimed to strengthen protections against pay discrimination.