Second gentleman Doug Emhoff to speak at SXSW event in Austin on gender equity
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WASHINGTON — U.S. second gentleman Doug Emhoff will travel to Austin to speak about gender equity at a South by Southwest event March 15, the American-Statesman has learned.
Emhoff, 58, is married to Kamala Harris, the nation’s first female vice president. In keeping with his historic role as the first second gentlemen, gender equality is one of Emhoff’s core priorities.
“My main job is to support her in any way that I can,” he said of Harris last year in an interview with 19th News, an independent news site named for the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. "I found where I can really make a difference is just trying to use my voice to lift women in leadership up.”
Emhoff is a former entertainment industry lawyer who, in addition to his work as second gentleman, teaches law at Georgetown University Law Center.
At SXSW, he will be featured in a speaker’s session in which he will be interviewed about his focus on gender equity and promoting rights and opportunities for women and girls.
“We’re honored to have the Second Gentleman, Douglas Emhoff, appear at SXSW for a discussion on gender equity and advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls in the United States and around the world,” Hugh Forrest, SXSW co-president and chief programming officer, said in a statement to the American-Statesman.
“Mr. Emhoff’s advocacy for gender equity, as well as his championing the importance of empowering women in leadership positions, strongly aligns with our own purpose, helping creative people achieve their goals.”
The timing of Emhoff’s speech aligns with his advocacy work as March 14 is Equal Pay Day, a symbolic day first featured in 1996 to showcase how much longer women have to work than men to earn the same median pay. Congress in 1987 declared March to be National Women’s History Month.
It will be Emhoff’s first visit to SXSW and makes him the highest-ranking Biden administration official to attend the Austin festival, which showcases the convergence of tech, film, music, education and culture.
Other Biden administration officials participating at SXSW will be Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona as well as former Austinite Robert Santos, director of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Emhoff has raised his profile since the 2020 election and made gender equality one of his signature issues in visits and roundtable discussions in the U.S. and abroad, including in meetings with Japan's minister of state for gender equality and with France’s minister for gender equality, diversity and equal opportunities.
Emhoff’s official biography on the White House website states that he “knows the power and importance of having women in leadership positions” and that “he has seen what it has meant to young girls and boys to look up to Vice President Kamala Harris.”
He’s described as a champion for gender equality who promotes the importance of workplace equity, equal pay, protecting reproductive rights and health care for women.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Doug Emhoff to speak at SXSW on gender equity
