In a couple of the past few times I have been to Confession, the priest has handed me a small prayer card that, on one side, says, “God in all things.”  This was brought to mind today while watching Lilly (2024), the biopic about Lilly Ledbetter (Patricia Clakrkson).  It is somewhat embarrassing that this name did not immediately jog my memory upon being reminded of it in the film.  She was an Alabama woman who faced discrimination during her nearly twenty-year career working for the Goodyear tire company.  What makes her special is the subject of the movie.  I started this review as I did because I was reminded while listening to the Bible in a Year podcast with Father Mike Schmitz of how God sees men and women as equal.  We are different, to be sure, but equal in all other ways.  You will see why this is relevant in a moment.

The first shot is of Lilly addressing the 2008 Democrat National Convention, but much of the rest of the film is about why this is relevant.  Hence, the story starts in 1979 when she gets her first job on the factory floor of the Goodyear tire factory in Gadsden, Alabama.  This is not a typical setting for a woman, and it is evident that her co-workers are testing her mettle.  It is also not something her husband, Charles Ledbetter (John Benjamin Hickey), is expecting.  He is in the United States Army, but his paycheck working on the base is not is not enough for the needs of their family.  Still, he is not happy about his wife going to work.  It is her determination to help provide that sways his opinion, and they never again fight about it.  What she has to do is fight for her position in the company.  After a few years, she gets promotions into management positions, but when she witnesses other women dealing with unfair treatment, she raises objections.  Doing so results in demotions.  Eventually, she is moved back to the floor where she receives an injury that forces her to use a walking aid.  As she hobbles into work one day, she finds that she had been left out of a management meeting.  When they tell her she is no longer in that role, she reminds them that this is being contested.  Her protestations are ignored, and it is at this point that she decides to do something about it.  It is time for legal action.  However, the law firm she goes to does not sound hopeful.  They are concerned about the difficulty of proving discrimination cases.  Yet, one of their lawyers, Jon Goldfarb (Thomas Sadoski), tells Lilly that what she needs is evidence.  With this in mind, she returns to Goodyear to clock in, and is immediately asked to place some papers on their supervisor’s desk.  Doing so gives her access to her employee file, which she takes from the cabinet.  Unfortunately, one of the reports from it falls to the floor, alerting them to the theft.  Once that is found, she is summarily fired.  Despite this action, someone had slipped into her pocket a note that shows how much she made as a manager compared to what the men in similar positions made at the same time.  Bringing this to Jon, it is all that is needed for him to get to the case underway.  As an aside, if you are wondering how Charles feels about all this, know that he is supportive at every moment.  He does so despite battling cancer at one point.  Still, it should have been one step for Jon wins the first decision for Lilly, and the jury awards her damages of nearly $4 million.  However, the Alabama chamber of commerce sways Goodyear to, instead of paying out, to appeal the ruling to federal court.  The fear is that if this case is allowed to stand, it will set a precedent all over the country for employees to sue their companies.  Further, the appeal overturns the lower court’s decision, citing the fact that any complaint needs to be filed within 180 days of the occurrence.  The setback is hard, but not entirely unexpected.  Jon’s response is to take Lilly’s cause to the Supreme Court.  Though the highest arbiters in the land rarely take a case, they hear Lilly’s.  Yet, the outcome is the same, though by a narrow margin of 5-4.  It is the dissenting opinion of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (archival footage) that keeps Lilly’s hopes alive.  In a seldomly used move, Justice Ginsburg’s dissention is read from the bench, and her underscoring of the absurdity of ruling against Lilly inspires the next phase of this movement.  It involves spending a lot of time in Washington, lobbying with Congress to pass a Fair Pay Act to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling.  Lilly spends a lot of time in our nation’s capital even though Charles is fighting terminal cancer.  While she manages to convince a number of legislators to support her cause, it comes with George W. Bush (not pictured) in the White House, who vows to veto the bill.  Timing is everything.  Come 2008, where the movie begins, a new set of Democrat presidential candidates are eager to cater to Lilly, namely Hilary Clinton (archival footage) and Barack Obama (archival footage).  Ultimately, it is Obama who wins, but Lilly must still convince a conservative Senate to support the passage.  It takes a bit more stumping on her part, but she gets the job done.

What is less done in this review of Lilly is a discussion of some of the personal things that go on in her life.  The movie does this to show that she was not some political animal who cared more about her cause than her family.  Yet, it is the cause that made it a movie, so that is what I focused on for better or worse.  That family, by the way, is a Christian one.  It is the stereotypes connected to that religion that form part of why she is so heavily contested.  An example of this is found when Charles is asked to speak at his church, a church that had seen his father and grandfather be pastors.  On this particular day, Congressman Dan McGinty (Josh McDermitt) is set to speak to the same congregation.  The current pastor, not wanting to disturb the politician, asks Charles to give his testimony on another day.  Charles responds with Matthew 5:10, “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  What the Congressman and the pastor are leaning on is a traditional interpretation of the Bible that says women are inferior to men, which is false.  Nowhere does Scripture make this supposition, nor is that the intended meaning of any verse.  Nonetheless, over the centuries, verses like 1 Corinthians 11:3 talking about the husband being the head of his wife has been taken to mean there is a hierarchy.  This is cherry picking the Bible, especially since there are other verses in the same book saying the husbands should be subordinate to their wives, and vice versa.  That is equality, but we have extended the wrong attitude into other parts of our society.  This film seeks to redress those mistakes.

Hopefully, by watching Lilly, you will reassess some of your own notions.  It is important to remember that God loves us all equally, and that there is no context in which anyone should discriminate against another on the basis of sex.