Abby Connolly
Through the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, which she founded, reports outlining the lack of fair wages and daycare for working women highlighted the country’s inequalities. She was very passionate about these issues, especially since, during that time, she was a working mother of four children and had to pay for childcare.
When Congress was introduced to the Equal Pay Act, legislation nearly 100 years in the making, Esther pushed for it and was very vocal about its importance. The act prohibited wage discrimination and would force employers to pay male and female employees equal wages for roles that required the same skills.
Thankfully, President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law in 1963. That same year, he named Esther assistant secretary of labor for labor standards, and she became the highest-ranking woman in the Kennedy administration.
Esther continued fighting for equal rights and social justice years after the Kennedy administration, lobbying and even working as the Special Assistant for Consumer Affairs for President Lyndon Johnson and Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs for President Jimmy Carter.
Esther received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for all her brilliant work in 1981 and became a delegate of the United Nations in 1993. She lived out her final years in D.C., the heart of the U.S. government, until she died in 1997 at 91.
It’s hard to imagine what would’ve happened to the fate of the Equal Pay Act if Esther hadn’t pushed so hard for it, which is why it’s important to remember all of her amazing work.
