Rachel Feldman knew she had to make a movie about Lilly Ledbetter the moment she saw her speak at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
 
“Here was this Alabama grandma in front of millions of Americans, talking about fair pay and gender equity with such grace and courage,” says Feldman, who was watching the coverage with her husband. “And I had, like, this physical reaction. I grabbed my husband and said, ‘This is a movie! This is a movie!’ The next day I called Lilly.”
 
That call kicked off a fifteen-year journey for Feldman, who co-wrote, directed, and produced a major motion picture about Lilly Ledbetter’s legal battle against pay discrimination. The job of creating “LILLY” had almost as many ups and downs, disappointments and setbacks as Lilly’s actual legal battle. But Feldman persisted, and “LILLY”—a full-length feature film—is now in distribution nationwide.
 
Lincoln Road Enterprises is a proud co-executive producer of the film and hosted a private screening of “LILLY” on May 15, 2025, at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. More than 100 guests attended and enjoyed both the movie and a post-film panel discussion with filmmaker Feldman; Sharmili Majmudar, Executive Vice President of Policy, Programs, and Research for Women Employed, a nonprofit that advocates for women's economic justice; and Tina Tchen, Executive Vice President of Programs for the Obama Foundation and former White House official serving both President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
 
Although Lilly ultimately lost her lawsuit, her fight was the genesis of the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act of 2009, the first piece of legislation President Obama signed after taking office. The film portrays that legal fight as well as the conditions leading up to it. A plant manager at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Gadsden, Alabama, for almost 20 years, Lilly discovered that she had been getting paid about half of what her male colleagues received for doing the same work. Her lawsuit against Goodyear ultimately went all the way to the Supreme Court. There, Lilly lost on a technicality, but in her dissenting opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg—no stranger to workplace discrimination herself—called on Congress to right this wrong through legislation. And Congress ultimately did.
 
Following the movie, the panel discussed how pay inequality persists today. Women working full-time still earn about 83 cents for every dollar paid to a man, and even within the same profession—be it elementary school teacher or engineer—men tend to be paid more than women for the same role.
 
“The enduring mythology around unequal pay is that women create the pay gap through their lifestyle choices,” said Majmudar. “But it’s really about how little we value the labor of women versus the labor of men. The system is flawed; there tends to be a ‘motherhood penalty’—where women see their earnings and opportunities drop after becoming a mom—and a ‘fatherhood bonus’ in which men see their earnings increase after becoming a father.”
 
“There are a lot of laws on the books, thanks to people like Lilly,” Majmudar added. “But a law is only as good as it’s interpreted, implemented, and enforced.”
 
Tina Tchen reflected on working in the Obama administration and that one of her first tasks was to prepare for the president signing the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act in the East Room of the White House. “He was and is very proud of the fact that that was the first piece of legislation that he signed in his eight years in office,” she said.
 
For Feldman, telling Lilly’s story was personal. She grew up wanting to be a filmmaker but discovered that profession was a man’s world. Instead, she made a successful career for herself directing TV shows. “I understood gender discrimination in a whole other kind of way than an Alabama Tire factory worker,” she said. “But I understood it very well from an employment perspective.”
 
“Anyone can be the voice and face of an issue if you had the grace and the grit of a Lilly Ledbetter,” she pointed out. “She was an ordinary person who did an extraordinary thing. But she also had a lot of support.” Majmudar added, “We don’t all have to be a Lilly. But each of us can be someone who supports someone like Lilly.”
 
Feldman said every email she got from Lilly as they worked their way through difficulty after difficulty ended the same way: “I have faith in you.”
 
For more information and to learn where “LILLY” is showing in Chicago and cities nationwide, visit https://www.lillymovie.com/.