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This is this week’s ForbesWomen newsletter, which every Thursday brings news about the world’s top female entrepreneurs, leaders and investors straight to your inbox. Click here to get on the newsletter list!
US President Barack Obama applauds Lilly Ledbetter before signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, January 29, 2009. The wage discrimination bill, which allows employees more time to file a claim, is named after Lilly Ledbetter, a retired worker at a Goodyear factory in Alabama who discovered she was paid less than her male counterparts. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
On Saturday, groundbreaking pay equity advocate Lilly Ledbetter passed away at the age of 86. Ledbetter never set out to be an activist—she was a factory worker in Alabama who just wanted to do her job and get paid fairly for doing it. But after an anonymous note informed Ledbetter that she was being paid significantly less than all 15 of her male colleagues, including those with less seniority, Ledbetter set out on a path that would ultimately lead to a change in American law.
“It’s important to remember that she was a manager in a tire plant in Alabama in the 80s. She was a force in the workplace, a woman ahead of her time,” Noreen Farrell, the executive director of Equal Rights Advocates, told me in an interview this week. While it’s hard to calculate the exact number of people who’ve benefited from the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act—which President Obama signed in his first act as commander in chief in 2009—Farrell says that Ledbetter’s work touches tens of thousands of pay discrimination cases every year.
However, as entrepreneur LIz Elting notes in her remembrance of Ledbetter for ForbesWomen, the future Ledbetter fought for may still be on uncertain ground, with recent research from the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) estimating that the gender pay gap may never close. “So many women, this writer included, have Ledbetter to thank for igniting this fight so that we can one day make that future a reality,” Elting says. “In her own words, ‘This fight, which began as my own, is now our fight.’”
Cheers to that!
Maggie McGrath
P.S.: Nominations for the 4th annual 50 Over 50 Global list are now open! This year’s global list is different from the ones we’ve run in the past, because it is truly global: instead of doing two regional lists in Asia and EMEA, we’re seeking nominations from all continents and countries (other than the U.S.). You see all the nomination details here and a Know Your Value segment about the list here.
Exclusive Forbes Investigation: Entrepreneurs Say TikTok Is Rejecting Ads About IVF, Egg Freezing And Fertility Services
Getty Images
Startups across the reproductive healthcare space have seen their ads about in-vitro fertilization and egg-freezing blocked or restricted across TikTok, Google and Meta, according to leaders of multiple reproductive health companies. “We are literally hitting our heads against a brick wall,” said Dr. Helen O’Neill, a Hertility cofounder and molecular geneticist who’s spent more than a decade researching infertility and embryonic development.
ICYMI: News Of The Week
GLENDALE, ARIZONA – MARCH 17: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO USE ON COVERS OF PUBLICATIONS. NO BOOK USE) Taylor Swift performs onstage for the opening night of “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” at State Farm Stadium on March 17, 2023 in Swift City, ERAzona (Glendale, Arizona). The city of Glendale, Arizona was ceremonially renamed to Swift City for March 17-18 in honor of The Eras Tour. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
In 2024, concert tickets hit the highest average price ever recorded, at nearly $127 a seat. But who are the artists who’ve had the highest grossing concerts of the year so far? Taylor Swift, P!nk and Madonna are among the top 10, according to a new Forbes analysis.
Three years after reaching a confidential divorce settlement with Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates is still receiving Microsoft stock from her former spouse. Last Tuesday, French Gates reported receiving an additional $1.2 billion of public company stock, boosting her fortune to an estimated $30.2 billion and ranking her the 12th richest woman in the world.
The Federal Trade Commission will soon implement a rule making it easier for consumers to cancel their subscriptions and memberships, effectively clamping down on companies who complicate the cancellation process and threatening them with civil penalties if they continue to do so. “Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement Wednesday.
Vice President Kamala Harris rolled out new economic proposals Monday aimed at Black men, adding to the economic plans she’s already released as the nominee has already called for an “opportunity economy” focused on the middle class and released proposals that include lowering grocery and prescription drug prices and addressing the housing crisis.
There’s a common stereotype in the modern working world that women are less confident than men. It’s sometimes used to excuse gender and pay disparities at the leadership level. But new research suggests that the opposite is true: in 2024, female business leaders are significantly more confident that they have the right skills to be successful at work than their male counterparts.
The Checklist
1. Watch your language. Are the words you use on your resume holding you back? According to new research, “communal” verbiage that indicates relationship-oriented strengths can backfire for women who are applying for roles in traditionally male-dominated fields.
2. “Dry trip” it. As many as 41% of Americans—and more than half of millennials and Gen Zers—are trying to drink less, a significant uptick from even just a few years ago. One area where this trend breaks down, though, is vacation. Meet the entrepreneur trying to bring more spirit-free options to the travel industry.
3. Recover from a business-partner breakup. The emotional (and logistical) turmoil of losing a business partner can mirror the grief cycle we experience for personal losses. Recognizing and managing these stages is crucial to maintaining your venture’s momentum and well-being.
An NWSL expansion team is set to bring pro women’s soccer back to Boston for the first time since 2017. But even though its players won’t step onto the pitch until 2026, the team’s debut this week drew immediate criticism. What does the controversy stem from?
The team’s name, Bos Nation, meant to be an anagram of “Bostonian”
An ad decrying “too many balls” in the city’s sports history
An marketing campaign some saw as transphobic
All of the above
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