Ten years ago, Lilly Ledbetter waltzed with Barack Obama at his first inaugural and into the hearts of many including mine. Ah 2009. I had the pleasure of meeting this “accidental heroine” in Washington DC, while working as a communications professional for a women’s group committed to closing the gender pay gap.

Ledbetter didn’t set out to be in the history books just as the supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn’t set out to be a pop culture icon, but clearly fate had different plans and brought together these two figures on the important issue of workplace fairness. While Ledbetter ultimately lost her supreme court case, the world gained a tireless advocate for women.

What’s impressive about both of these women is that their fight continues – even into their 80s. Ledbetter, who turns 81 in April, still inspires audiences around the nation by sharing her pay discrimination story; while Ginsburg’s latest bout with cancer has slowed the 85-year-old justice, she’s still in the game.

We can all learn a lot from these “won’t stop, can’t stop” octogenarian women and their contemporaries – people like feminist activist Gloria Steinem, congresswoman Maxine Waters and actress Rita Moreno. Steinem has tweeted about her plan to attend the 19 January Women’s March in New York, while Waters is the first African American and first woman chair of the House financial services committee, one of Congress’s most powerful committees.

Perhaps Rita Moreno, who will be back as Lydia in the third season premiere of One Day at a Time, summed it up best in her 2018 Makers video: “My biggest accomplishment in life, I think, is still being here. I’m 80 and I’m working,” she said.

Yes, let’s hear it for the women who are doing work they love. And especially for those who are using their voice to make the workplace more fair. Ledbetter is perhaps the best personification of that.

She had what she has called a good job as an overnight supervisor for the Goodyear Tire & Rubber plant in Gadsden, Alabama. She had worked there for nearly 20 years and then discovered that she was being paid substantially less than men doing the same job.

Her case was strong, but in the end, she walked away without a cent. The majority, in a 5-4 ruling, held that she should have filed suit sooner – within 180 days of the discriminatory pay decision itself, which is a head scratcher because she had no way of knowing that she was being shortchanged.

From the bench, Justice Ginsburg took the unusual step to read her dissent saying “In our view, the court does not comprehend, or is indifferent to, the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination … Once again, the ball is in Congress’ court.”

The, 18 months later, Ledbetter became the namesake of the first piece of legislation signed by President Obama on 29 January 2009. He said that she lost more than $200,000 and even more in pension and social security benefits. Ginsburg played an important role in making that day possible by setting the stage with her dissent.

Since the Ledbetter law, states and cities around the nation have passed their own equal pay bills. When the New Jersey governor signed the most sweeping equal pay legislation in the nation, Ledbetter was there as a special guest.

Special indeed.

Bottles up for the ladies in their 80s. I hope that their stories fuel us on this long march toward justice. We need brave women of all ages along with our male allies to get us there.