Sept. 13-19, 2024
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign event. Argentina’s President Javier Milei sings the national anthem and a supermoon rises behind a horse statue in Russia.
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Flags showing support for Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump fly near Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Devotees prepare to immerse a giant idol of elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha in the Arabian Sea, marking the end of the 10-day long Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Mexican National Guards march in the Independence Day military parade through the capital's main square, the Zocalo, in Mexico City, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
Geese stand on an outdoor table in a flooded neighbourhood in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
A view of flooded houses in Jesenik, Czech Republic, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Residents paddle through a flooded street in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Smoke rises from fire in the environmentally protected area of Brasilia National Park during the dry season in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. The head of the agency that manages protected areas, Mauro Pires, told the local press that the fire is man-made and appears to have started near the edge of a farm. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
A man wearing traditional clothing performs acrobatics on a horse during Independence Day celebrations in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
An effigy of former President Evo Morales burns on a road in Vila Vila, Bolivia, to block Morales supporters who are marching to the capital to protest the government of current President Luis Arce in an escalation of a political dispute between the two politicians, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
A girl with her family and hunting dogs attends in the traditional Nations' Fair in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
Kashmiri Muslim women devotees reacts as they offer prayers as a head priest displays a relic, believed to be a hair from the beard of the Prophet Mohammad, at the Hazratbal shrine on Eid-e-Milad, the birth anniversary of the prophet, in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
People play soccer in Panama City, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A Brazilian artist from the Ser Favela group performs on a stage with favela scenery at the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)
A model wears a creation as part of the Roberto Cavalli Spring Summer 2025 collection, that was presented in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Boys play soccer in a park as the sun sets in Milan, Italy, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
A soldier participates in the Independence Day military parade in the Zocalo, Mexico City's main square, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
A supermoon rises behind a horse statue atop of Triumphal Arc during a partial lunar eclipse in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
An artist performs a fire kettle show during the Mid-Autumn Festival at a night market in Beijing, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
A painting of Jesus is covered in cracks after a Russian bomb hit the dome of an Orthodox church in Novoekonomichne, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Israelis take cover next to a shelter as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from Lebanon, in Nahariya, northern Israel, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
People watch the speech of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as they sit in a cafe in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Hezbollah members carry the coffin of their comrade who was killed on Wednesday when a handheld device exploded, during a funeral procession in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Civil Defense first-responders carry a man who was wounded after his handheld pager exploded, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo)
A police officer inspects a car in which a hand-held pager exploded, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Police try to disperse demonstrators blocking a road during a protest calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A woman wears a head scarf reading in Arabic, "my Love to Prophet Muhammad", during a parade to celebrate Moulid Al-Nabi, the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Argentina's President Javier Milei sings the national anthem as he addresses the Congress to present the 2025 budget in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign event at Nassau Coliseum, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Uniondale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A Brazilian artist performs on a stage, an effigy of former President Evo Morales burns on a road, Mexican National Guard officers march during the Independence Day festivities and devotees prepare to immerse a giant idol of elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha in India.
This gallery highlights some of the most compelling images published in the past week by The Associated Press.
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Flags showing support for Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump fly near Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Devotees prepare to immerse a giant idol of elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha in the Arabian Sea, marking the end of the 10-day long Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Mexican National Guards march in the Independence Day military parade through the capital's main square, the Zocalo, in Mexico City, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
Geese stand on an outdoor table in a flooded neighbourhood in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
A view of flooded houses in Jesenik, Czech Republic, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Residents paddle through a flooded street in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Smoke rises from fire in the environmentally protected area of Brasilia National Park during the dry season in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. The head of the agency that manages protected areas, Mauro Pires, told the local press that the fire is man-made and appears to have started near the edge of a farm. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
A man wearing traditional clothing performs acrobatics on a horse during Independence Day celebrations in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
An effigy of former President Evo Morales burns on a road in Vila Vila, Bolivia, to block Morales supporters who are marching to the capital to protest the government of current President Luis Arce in an escalation of a political dispute between the two politicians, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
A girl with her family and hunting dogs attends in the traditional Nations' Fair in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
Kashmiri Muslim women devotees reacts as they offer prayers as a head priest displays a relic, believed to be a hair from the beard of the Prophet Mohammad, at the Hazratbal shrine on Eid-e-Milad, the birth anniversary of the prophet, in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
People play soccer in Panama City, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A Brazilian artist from the Ser Favela group performs on a stage with favela scenery at the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)
A model wears a creation as part of the Roberto Cavalli Spring Summer 2025 collection, that was presented in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Boys play soccer in a park as the sun sets in Milan, Italy, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
A soldier participates in the Independence Day military parade in the Zocalo, Mexico City's main square, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
A supermoon rises behind a horse statue atop of Triumphal Arc during a partial lunar eclipse in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
An artist performs a fire kettle show during the Mid-Autumn Festival at a night market in Beijing, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
A painting of Jesus is covered in cracks after a Russian bomb hit the dome of an Orthodox church in Novoekonomichne, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Israelis take cover next to a shelter as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from Lebanon, in Nahariya, northern Israel, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
People watch the speech of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as they sit in a cafe in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Hezbollah members carry the coffin of their comrade who was killed on Wednesday when a handheld device exploded, during a funeral procession in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Civil Defense first-responders carry a man who was wounded after his handheld pager exploded, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo)
A police officer inspects a car in which a hand-held pager exploded, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Police try to disperse demonstrators blocking a road during a protest calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A woman wears a head scarf reading in Arabic, "my Love to Prophet Muhammad", during a parade to celebrate Moulid Al-Nabi, the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Argentina's President Javier Milei sings the national anthem as he addresses the Congress to present the 2025 budget in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign event at Nassau Coliseum, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Uniondale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
NEW YORK (AP) — Lilly Ledbetter, an former Alabama factory manager whose lawsuit against her employer made her an icon of the equal pay movement and led to landmark wage discrimination legislation, has died at 86.
Ledbetter's discovery that she was earning less than her male counterparts for doing the same job at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Alabama led to her lawsuit, which ultimately failed when the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that she had filed her complaint too late. The court ruled that workers must file lawsuits within six months of first receiving a discriminatory paycheck — in Ledbetter's case, years before she learned about the disparity through an anonymous letter.
Two years later, former President Barack Obama signed into the law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which gave workers the right to sue within 180 days of receiving each discrimination paycheck, not just the first one.
“Lilly Ledbetter never set out to be a trailblazer or a household name. She just wanted to be paid the same as a man for her hard work,” Obama said in a statement Monday. “Lilly did what so many Americans before her have done: setting her sights high for herself and even higher for her children and grandchildren.”
Ledbetter died Saturday of respiratory failure, according to a statement from her family cited by the Alabama news site AL.com.
Ledbetter continued campaigning for equal pay for decades after winning the law named after her. A film about her life starring Patricia Clarkson premiered last week at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
The team behind the film, “LILLY,” issued a statement of condolence on social media.
“Lilly was an ordinary woman who achieved extraordinary things, and her story continues to motivate us all. We will miss her,” the team said.
In January, President Joe Biden marked the 15th anniversary of the law named after Ledbetter with new measures to help close the gender wage gap, including a new rule barring the federal government from considering a person's current or past pay when determining their salary.
Ledbetter had advocated for the measure in a January opinion piece for Ms. Magazine penned with Deborah Vagins, director of the Equal Pay Today advocacy group. But Ledbetter and other advocates for years have been frustrated that more comprehensive initiatives have stalled, including the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963.
The sense of urgency among advocates deepened after an annual report from the Census Bureau last month found that the gender wage gap between men and women widened for the first time 20 years. In 2023, women working full time earned 83 cents on the dollar compared with men, down from 84 cents in 2022. Even before then, advocates had been frustrated that wage gap improvement had mostly stalled for the last 20 years despite women making gains in the C-suite and earning college degrees at a faster rate than men. Experts say the reasons for the enduring gap are multifaceted, including the overrepresentation of women in lower-paying industries and weak childcare system that pushes many women to step back from their careers in their peak earnings years.
In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Ledbetter wrote a opinion piece in The New York Times detailing the harassment she faced as a manager at the Goodyear factory and drawing a link between workplace sexual harassment and pay discrimination.
“She was indefatigable,” said Emily Martin, chief program officer at the National Women's Law Center, which worked closely with Ledbetter. “She was always ready to lend her voice, to show up to do a video, to write an op-ed. She was always ready to go.”
Ledbetter was a manager at the Goodyear plant in Gadsden, Alabama, and had worked their 19 years when she received an anonymous note saying she was being paid significantly less than three male colleagues. She filed a lawsuit in 1999 and initially won $3.8 million in backpay and damages from a federal court. She never received the money after eventually losing her case before the Supreme Court.
Although the law named after her didn't directly address the gender wage gap, Martin said it set an important precedent “for ensuring that we don’t just have the promise of equal pay on the books but we have a way to enforce the law.”
“She is a really an inspiration in showing us how a loss does not mean you can’t win,” Martin said. “We know her name because she lost, and she lost big, and she kept coming back from it and kept working until the day she died to change that loss into real gains for women across the country.”
While The wage gap is wider among women of color.
working full-time widened year-over-year for the first time in 20 years, according to an annual report from the Census Bureau.
FILE - Lilly Ledbetter, an activist for workplace equality, left, joins demonstrators opposed to President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, in front of the Supreme Court, in Washington, Aug. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Lilly Ledbetter, center, an activist for workplace equality, is flanked by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., right, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act, left, speaks at an event to advocate for the Paycheck Fairness Act at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 30, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - Lilly Ledbetter watches as President Barack Obama signs executive actions, with pending Senate legislation, aimed at closing a compensation gender gap that favors men, at the White House in Washington, April 8, 2014, during an event marking Equal Pay Day. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - Lilly Ledbetter looks to the audience as President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, April 8, 2014, during an event marking Equal Pay Day. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)