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Influential Voices: Beth Garfield
Influential Voices: Beth Garfield
At graduation, Garfield received the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Outstanding Service to Undergraduate Education. Her award reads: For the vigor and spirit which characterized her Presidency of the Associated Students; for her initiative and energy on behalf of children in the Stanford community; for her consistent, lively, and thoughtful efforts to educate the University about its women and its women about themselves; and for her impatience with passivity and non-participation in the affairs of society. Garfield left Stanford better than she found it. At law school, she was president of the Women Law Students Association and fought for admission of more women, African American and Latino students. She also worked with the United Auto Workers in Detroit, which solidified her commitment to becoming a labor lawyer.
The second issue that Garfield sees as vital to the success of todays womens movement is to ensure that women have control over their work life. She believes this is just as important for the lowest hourly wage earner as it is for the highest-level corporate executive. As a partner in her own firm, Garfield had flexibility in her work schedule when her two daughters were young. Although she worked many hours, she had the freedom to attend their activities and be involved in their lives. She says that this is extremely important for women and that, when this is not the case, you see the kind of guilt and estrangement that alienates women in the labor force.
Susan Heck, Beth Garfield and Myra Strober at a Clayman Institute Advisory Council Meeting
Garfields career is a stunning example of the ability of one individual to affect social change although she might put it a bit differently. I think individuals can do great things, she says. "But, for me, being a union lawyer is being a part of a movement and the possibility for change is limitless.
Beth Garfield received a B.A. from Stanford and law degree from the University of Michigan. She is a founding partner ofHolguin & Garfield, a law firm in Los Angeles. Garfield is a member of the Clayman Institute Advisory Council and has served as an elected member of the Los Angeles Community College Board. This article was written by Lindsay Owens, a graduate student in the Sociology Department and a member of the Clayman Institute Student Writing Team.
Founded in 1974, the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University creates knowledge and seeks to implement change that promotes gender equality at Stanford, nationally, and internationally.
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