Interview with Susan R. Meredith
IntervieweeInterview with
Susan R. Meredith
American, born 1944
InterviewerInterviewed by
Alice A. Bruno
American
Date2007 October 24
DimensionsDuration: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes, 3 Seconds
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation
DescriptionOral history interview with Susan R. Meredith who was interviewed by Alice A. Bruno on October 24, 2007 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.
Topics Discussed:
- Early Life: Susan Meredith was born on August 10, 1944, in Troy, New York, and grew up in Sheffield, Alabama, after her father returned from World War II.
- College: In 1962, she attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, majoring in Political Science.
- Civil Rights Movement : She noted Vanderbilt's sexism at the time. She became involved in civil rights issues and, despite the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, did not attend school with black people until she was a junior in college.
- Parental Influence: Susan Meredith's parents held liberal views [sic]. Her father being pro-choice and a First Amendment advocate, and her mother described as a feminist.
- Marriage: Susan married John Watson, whom she met at Vanderbilt, and they have two children.
- Women's Movement: Susan and her husband moved to Boston in 1967. She became involved in the anti-war movement and the women's movement. In 1970, she joined a consciousness-raising group called Bread and Roses, where she decided to go to law school.
- Early Legal and Discrimination Work: At the same time, she became involved in a sex discrimination complaint at her workplace, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, where women planners were paid significantly less than men. She and two others received a grant from the John Hay Whitney Foundation to study women's employment by the City of Boston.
- Law School: Susan Meredith started at Northeastern Law School, which had a high percentage of women, in the fall of 1971.
- Founding and Work at CWEALF: The Connecticut Women's Educational and Legal Fund (CWEALF) was formed around 1973 by a group of Connecticut lawyers who initially worked on a bill against credit discrimination. Susan started working at CWEALF in 1974, and became the executive and legal director at the end of 1976. CWEALF initially had offices in New Haven (1974) and opened a Hartford office around 1977. During her time, CWEALF filed test cases, including an employment discrimination case against Electric Boat in Groton.
- Post-CWEALF Career: After leaving CWEALF in 1980, Susan became a private labor arbitrator. She then became a full member of the state Board of Labor Relations.
- The Evolving Legal Profession and Women in Law : Susan Meredith reflected on the significant increase in women in the legal profession, noting that the bar is now more than 50% women.
Topics Discussed:
- Early Life: Susan Meredith was born on August 10, 1944, in Troy, New York, and grew up in Sheffield, Alabama, after her father returned from World War II.
- College: In 1962, she attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, majoring in Political Science.
- Civil Rights Movement : She noted Vanderbilt's sexism at the time. She became involved in civil rights issues and, despite the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, did not attend school with black people until she was a junior in college.
- Parental Influence: Susan Meredith's parents held liberal views [sic]. Her father being pro-choice and a First Amendment advocate, and her mother described as a feminist.
- Marriage: Susan married John Watson, whom she met at Vanderbilt, and they have two children.
- Women's Movement: Susan and her husband moved to Boston in 1967. She became involved in the anti-war movement and the women's movement. In 1970, she joined a consciousness-raising group called Bread and Roses, where she decided to go to law school.
- Early Legal and Discrimination Work: At the same time, she became involved in a sex discrimination complaint at her workplace, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, where women planners were paid significantly less than men. She and two others received a grant from the John Hay Whitney Foundation to study women's employment by the City of Boston.
- Law School: Susan Meredith started at Northeastern Law School, which had a high percentage of women, in the fall of 1971.
- Founding and Work at CWEALF: The Connecticut Women's Educational and Legal Fund (CWEALF) was formed around 1973 by a group of Connecticut lawyers who initially worked on a bill against credit discrimination. Susan started working at CWEALF in 1974, and became the executive and legal director at the end of 1976. CWEALF initially had offices in New Haven (1974) and opened a Hartford office around 1977. During her time, CWEALF filed test cases, including an employment discrimination case against Electric Boat in Groton.
- Post-CWEALF Career: After leaving CWEALF in 1980, Susan became a private labor arbitrator. She then became a full member of the state Board of Labor Relations.
- The Evolving Legal Profession and Women in Law : Susan Meredith reflected on the significant increase in women in the legal profession, noting that the bar is now more than 50% women.
Object number2024.38.33a-g
NotesProject Overview: At the turn of the 20th century, other than Mary Hall, women lawyers were virtually unknown in Connecticut. By contrast, at the turn of the 21st century, law schools were enrolling roughly the same number of women as men. Since their earliest time at the bar, women have become leaders in all areas of the profession at a pace out of all proportion to their brief history and number. In 1999, the Fellows of the Connecticut Bar Foundation initiated the Oral History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project. Within the framework of this dynamic project, the Fellows have been creating a permanent video, audio, and photographic historical record of milestone achievements of women as they have become more visible and achieved prominence in the field of law. In 2019, a leadership donation of $20,000 from the law firm of Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey enabled the project to significantly broaden its scope and plan for the future.
Through its first two phases, the project worked with award-winning documentarian Karyl Evans and attorney/photographer Isabel Chenoweth to produce fifty-eight oral history interviews with outstanding female attorneys and 118 portraits of women in the Connecticut judiciary.
The oral history interviews have collected the stories of women whose ingenuity, perseverance, and intelligence dismantled barriers that historically prevented women from pursuing careers in the law. Connecticut has benefited from the efforts of these “pioneers” as they enriched the legal profession by joining the ranks of their male peers and paved the way for more women to join the profession. (Source: Connecticut Bar Foundation)
Subject Terms
- Women
- Lawyers
- Women lawyers
- Oral history
- Interview films
- Interview transcripts
- Interviews
- Oral narratives
- Attorneys
- New York (N.Y.)
- World War, 1939-1945
- Civil rights movement
- Supreme Court justices
- Segregation
- Abortion
- Feminism
- Boston (Mass.)
- Women Suffrage
- Law schools
- Discrimination
- Fund raising
- Family
- Education
- Black people
- People of color
- Women's rights
- Women's rights
- Marriage
- Anti-war demonstrations
- Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF)
- Labor unions
- Labor law
- Interviews and Oral Histories
- History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project
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