Last month, Lilly Ledbetter and Vicky Crawford's personal employment struggles opened new doors for employees facing similar challenges. Neither employee found the law on her side, but both decided they would do whatever it took to right a wrong. What does their success promise you?

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Ledbetter, an area manager for the Goodyear Tire & Rubber plant in Gadsden, Ala., worked 19 years for her company. When close to retirement, she discovered her pay was less than male area managers with equal or less seniority.

Armed with the facts, that the male area managers earned $4,286 to $5,236 a month in contrast with her $3,727, she sued for equal pay, taking her case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Goodyear, holding that a employee must file a discrimination claim within 180 days of a company's initial decision to pay the employee less than it pays a co-worker doing the same job.

Although in the right, Ledbetter didn't stand a chance because she found out the pay inequity too late and thus didn't sue in time.

Crawford worked 30 years for the Metro School District of Nashville County. When questioned about rumors that the employee-relations director sexually harassed employees, Crawford told what she knew. Although she hadn't made the complaint and simply told the investigator about incidents in which the male employee-relations director grabbed his crotch and pulled her head toward his crotch, her company fired her, after charging her with embezzlement.

Crawford sued, claiming Metro fired her in retaliation for her statements during the investigation. A federal court of appeals decided Crawford couldn't sue because her actions related to an internal investigation.

"Most individuals would give up after losing in the Supreme Court or federal court appeals," says human resources consultant and former employment attorney Judith Cummings. "But these employees didn't. Further, because others agreed that what happened to these employees didn't comply with the spirit of our country's equal employment opportunity laws, they changed the legal landscape for everyone."

Ledbetter triggered the introduction and eventual passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that President Obama signed on Jan. 29 overturning the Supreme Court decision and establishing that employees "restarted" their time for suing for pay inequity each time they received a paycheck. The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is retroactive back to the day before the Supreme Court held against Ledbetter in May 2007.

In Crawford's case, she and her supporters took the adverse appeals court decision to the Supreme Court.

"As a result, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal court of appeals decision that Vicky Crawford couldn't sue for retaliation and held that an employee who participates in internal sexual harassment or other discrimination investigations receives the same protections from unlawful retaliation as an employee who participates in an investigation by a state or federal equal employment opportunity agency," Cummins says.

What do Ledbetter and Crawford's struggles and victories mean to you? Perhaps a lot. If you believe you're unfairly paid compared with co-workers and have evidence that the pay differential stems from sexist, racist or other discriminatory practices, Ledbetter paved the way for you to sue within 180 days of your next paycheck.

If your employer recently fired you in what appeared to be retaliation after you participated in an internal investigation, Crawford's Supreme Court ruling gives you an avenue for potential recourse.

Equally as important, if you believe you have "right" on your side and the current laws don't fit the situation, realize these two women chose to fight for their rights -- and won.

Lynne Curry is a local management trainer, consultant and syndicated columnist. Her advice and opinion column appears Mondays. Questions for her column may be faxed to her at 258-2157 or mailed to her c/o Anchorage Daily News, P.O. Box 149001, Anchorage 99514-9001. Her e-mail is lynne@thegrowthcompany.net.

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