Discrimination is a word we are familiar with in the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement.

We often think of the word in terms of black and white.

In truth, however, there are several classes of people without fair representation. Because of that, those people are not always fully rewarded for their contributions to our society.

It is only fitting that President Barack Obama, a man who represents so many firsts, signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act this week.

The bill is named after a Gadsden woman who realized she had not been paid as much as her male peers — only after working for 19 years with the same company.

Long gone are the days when women bore the load only when things get tough, i.e., female factory workers during World War II.

Women today run governments, are multi-millionaire executives and lead soldiers instead of just building weapons for them.

In a sense, it is tragic that it took this long for the Fair Pay Act to pass.

But change is seldom ever free of worry or blood.

We have to accept this progress now knowing that some things are unacceptable from now on.