Women’s rights activist Lilly Ledbetter has died, according to a family representative. She was 86.

Ledbetter, best known for his advocacy for equal pay for women, died Saturday evening due to respiratory problems. She was in Alabama, where she was born and raised.

“She was surrounded by her family and loved ones,” her family said in a statement on Sunday. “Our mother lived an extraordinary life.”

Ledbetter’s fight for equal pay began in the 1990s, when she received an anonymous letter stating that she was being paid far less than her male colleagues who had similar or less seniority and experience at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Gadsden, Alabama, where she worked as an area supervisor.

“I took a job that was normally considered a man’s job. I don’t agree with that term,” Ledbetter said in an interview with Forbes in 2019. “It’s a job. Whether it’s male, African American, Latino, heavy, skinny, whatever. If they are the best qualified for that job, they should get it and the money that comes with it.”

Thus began years of legal battles that reached all the way to the Supreme Court. Ledbetter ultimately lost the lawsuit against Goodyear because she missed the deadline for filing her claim, according to the Supreme Court ruling. But Democrats in Congress — spurred by a dissent from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — fought to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

The law makes it easier for victims of pay discrimination to file a case, loosening the statute of limitations that previously favored companies.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act became the first bill Barack Obama signed as president in 2009.

“Lilly did what so many Americans before her have done: set the bar high for herself and even higher for her children and grandchildren,” former president and first lady Michelle Obama said in a statement on Sunday. “Michelle and I are grateful for her advocacy and her friendship, and we send our love and prayers to her family and all who continue the fight she started.”

Last week, Ledbetter received Advertising Week’s first-ever Future Is Female Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes the achievements of trailblazing women. A film about her life, “Lilly,” starring Patricia Clarkson as Ledbetter, also recently premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival.