Hallie Farmer program

HALLIE FARMER Hallie Farmer, chair of the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Montevallo from 1927 until 1956, was one of the University’s most distinguished and best-known faculty members. In addition to her contributions on campus, Dr. Farmer was first vice president of the American Association of University Women and state president of the Business and Professional Women’s Club. She was a successful campaigner for state prison reform, repeal of the poll tax in Alabama and improvement in the state’s legislative processes. She is remembered by her students for her excellence in teaching and insistence that students should use their education and abilities to make a difference in the quality of community, state and national life. When the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame was established at Judson College in 1971, Hallie Farmer was one of three women inducted.

The lecture series in remembrance of Hallie Farmer was established in 1985 with funds provided by friends and former students of Dr. Farmer and the University of Montevallo.

Every two years, a prominent speaker is invited to the University to present lectures representative to the work and lifetime goals of Hallie Farmer. The series was initiated in 1985 with former Secretary of State Dean Rusk as speaker.

Donations to the Hallie Farmer Lecture Series Fund may be made through the UM Foundation, Station 6215, Montevallo, AL 35115

LILLY LEDBETTER For 10 years, Lilly Ledbetter fought to close the gap between women’s and men’s wages, sparring with the Supreme Court, lobbying Capitol Hill in a historic discrimination case against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

Ledbetter won a jury verdict of more than $3 million after having filed a gender pay discrimination suit in federal court, but the U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the lower court’s ruling. Despite her defeat, Ledbetter continued her fight until the Supreme Court decision was nullified when President Obama, on January 29, 2009, signed into law the first new law of his administration: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Ledbetter will never receive restitution from Goodyear, but she said, “I’ll be happy if the last thing they say about me after I die is that I made a difference.”

Lilly Ledbetter was born in a house with no running water or electricity in the small town of Possum Trot, Alabama. She knew that she was destined for something more, and in 1979, with two young children at home and over the initial objections of her husband, Charles, Lilly applied for her dream job at the Goodyear tire factory. Even though the only women she’d seen there were secretaries in the front offices where she’d submitted her application, she got the job—one of the first women hired at the management level.

Though she faced daily gender prejudice and sexual harassment, Lilly pressed onward, believing that eventually things would change. Until, nineteen years after her first day at Goodyear, Lilly received an anonymous note revealing that she was making thousands less per year than the men in her position. Devastated, she filed a sex discrimination case against Goodyear, which she won—and then heartbreakingly lost on appeal. Over the next eight years, her case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where she lost again: the court ruled that she should have filed suit within 180 days of her first unequal paycheck—despite the fact that she had no way of knowing that she was being paid unfairly all those years. In a dramatic moment, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg read her dissent from the bench, urging Lilly to fight back.

And fight Lilly did, becoming the namesake of Barack Obama’s first official piece of legislation as president. Today, she is a tireless advocate for change, traveling the country to urge women and minorities to claim their civil rights.

Program

HALLIE FARMER LECTURE Parnell Memorial Library Theater Tuesday, March 10, 2015 Welcome

Dr. John W. Stewart III, President University of Montevallo

Introduction of speaker

Carey Heatherly, Chair Hallie Farmer Lectures Committee

2015 Hallie Farmer Lecturer

Lilly Ledbetter Equal rights advocate

MY EXPERIENCE FOR EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK Co-author of Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond Reception and book signing

HALLIE FARMER LECTURES SERIES COMMITTEE Carey Heatherly, Chair Tracy Payne-Rockco Jason Newell Cassie Raulston

Melanie Williams Eric Vaccarella Barbara Brande