The Daily Journal this week wrote about a Haynes and Boone, LLP-hosted webinar titled “Celebrating the 19th Amendment” in honor of the 100th anniversary of the women's vote.
Here is an excerpt:
The webinar commemorating the 19th amendment, which was ratified in August 1920, featured a discussion with author Kimberly Hamlin about her book, Free Thinker: Sex, Suffrage, and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener, and was moderated by Lori Feathers, a Haynes and Boone alumni.
"It was important to bring someone in who not only was going to talk about suffrage, but who would also discuss some of the issues pertaining to race, as well and how black women fit or did not fit rather into the story in terms of voting rights," said Jennifer Reddien, Haynes and Boone's director of diversity and inclusion.
Gardener was a leader of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, an advisor to President Thomas Woodrow Wilson and the highest ranking woman in the federal government in the 1920s, having served on the U.S. Civil Service Commission.
Hamlin's biography, Free Thinker, tells the story of how Gardener came to be a political activist and writer who challenged the norms of the era, while at the same time addresses the racism that underpinned the women's suffrage movement and the fact that it was not until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that all women had the vote.
Among the topics addressed during Wednesday's webinar was that Gardener, like many suffragists of her time, was a pioneer tearing down the sexism and misogyny women faced, but not when it came to racism and ensuring that the 19th amendment applied to all women regardless of skin color. …
"I think the reason the firm sponsored [the event] and our diversity and inclusion department sponsored it is because it is so important to create awareness and educate our attorneys, as well as external clients, associates and colleagues about these issues so that we're able to have more complete and thoughtful dialogue in an effort to move the needle forward on all of our diversity and inclusion efforts," said Tamara I. Devitt, co-chair of the firm's women's initiative committee.
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