Levi Strauss | Arcelia Hurtado
Arcelia Hurtado speaks on the law, which she sees as a big hammer. It’s definitely one of the most powerful tools that we have. She is a lawyer who cares about social change and works actively to achieve it through the law, adding great value to society.
Transcript
the law is the big hammer it’s
definitely one of the most powerful
tools that we have and I think being a
lawyer who cares about social change and
works actively to achieve it through the
law that’s that has great value to
society my name is our cellular tether
and I’m the executive director of equal
rights advocates I want women to feel
safe when they go to work when they go
to school I want them to be able to feel
like they’re getting ahead that they’re
able to provide for their families that
they’re getting the promotion’s that
they’re entitled to that there they
don’t have to ward off unwanted advances
at work I want them to be able to do
whatever they want to do they want to be
a firefighter they want to be a doctor
they should be able to do both I think
one of the most powerful things you can
do is march into court and file a paper
that says this is what happened to me
and it wasn’t right and it violated this
law and I’m going to prove it and I’m
going to show a judge that this was
wrong so when this opportunity came up
with ara I decided to apply even though
I’ve never been an executive director
before I’ve only been a public defender
I had no experience that would lead me
to believe that a board would hire me
except for my life experience and I am
very lucky we are very lucky I think
that that is now what is valuable in a
lot of these organizations is having
leaders who have that life experience
and who are able to see issues across
many multiple layers I honestly think
that there aren’t enough lawyers working
for social change if you had hundreds of
Thurgood Marshall’s or hundreds of other
women lawyers that have worked for
social change and have impacted the law
and history and the way that in justices
are rectified what difference would that
have made in the world social justice 2
point 0 does embody a different kind of
leadership I think that we are different
every jeanration is different because we
have different experiences and we have
different challenges so 2 point 0
leadership really is about trying to
figure out what that means for each of
us and our organizations and the issues
that we want to address it requires
creativity and it require
us to find creative new ways to do
things a lot of people do think you know
array or feminism is the 70s you know
artifact we don’t need that anymore but
whatever you want to call it the reality
is that there are still you know women
suffering in silence sometimes because
they have no other recourse or they
think they have no other recourse until
they find er a and then er a is able to
advocate for them in the end you know
public opinion is on our side and the
law is on our side because it is illegal
last time I checked to discriminate
against women based on their gender
you
