The Penny Test - Ledbetter v Goodyear

Ruth Bader Ginsburg slew the Giant Tire Company in her scathing dissenting opinion of “Ledbetter v Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company” resulting in President Obama signing into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. It was the first act he signed as president. Justice Ginsburg considered the law’s passage as one of her greatest achievements. Lilly Ledbetter was not the only woman underpaid at Goodyear. One woman witness testified that as a supervisor, she was paid less than the men she supervised. In my piece, as a play on the “penny test” for tire treads, a used Goodyear tire balances on pennies inserted in the treads, representing the backs of the underpaid women upon which the company was built. The pennies circle the inside and creep up the sides of the tire treads like flames. The convex mirror “hubcap” challenges the viewer to contemplate the power of dissent in her own reflection. The Goodyear logo and the word “dissent” are painted in the red that was RBG’s favorite lipstick color. Her signature dissent collar is recreated in two shades of Swarovski crystals that trail up the tire inside and out like heavenly constellations. In her dissent and challenge to Congress, RBG owned Goodyear Tire, and we women are forever in her debt.