In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Christopher Cox about Woodrow Wilson and his interactions with women’s rights. They discuss the complicated history and legacy of Woodrow Wilson, landscape of the women’s Suffrage movement, and the origins of Wilson’s racist and sexist ideas. They talk about his time at Bryn Mawr College, ignoring women’s rights as governor, and how he won the Presidency in 1912. They discuss his removal of African-Americans from the Civil Service division, his interactions with the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA), handling women’s rights protests, change to supporting the Anthony Amendment, Wilson’s legacy on women’s rights, and many more topics.

Christopher Cox is a Senior Scholar in Residence at the University of California, Irvine, a Life Trustee of the University of Southern California, Chair of the Rhodes Scholarship selection committee for Southern California and the Pacific, and a member of several nonprofit and for-profit boards. Between two decades as a practicing lawyer, he served as chair of the Homeland Security Committee in the US House of Representatives, chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and senior associate counsel to the President. He has written for Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, The Detroit News, The Denver Post, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and dozens of other publications. He is the author of the recent book, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn.

Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe