THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Derek Shearer, PhD

“All the gains in progress that have been made in women’s status came through political struggle as well as personal change and struggle. And we shouldn’t be surprised at the pushback that comes. And there are always going to be obstacles to this kind of change because it’s so fundamental if you’re talking about human beings and how one part of half of the species treats the other.”

Chevalier Professor of Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Served in the Clinton administration as an economics official in the Commerce Department, and then as Ambassador to Finland (1994-97). A co-author of the Clinton-Gore campaign program Putting People First. A fellow at the Economic Strategy Institute and the Woodrow Wilson Scholars Center in Washington, DC. A foreign policy advisor to Vice President Gore during the 2000 Presidential campaign and to Senator Hillary Clinton in 2008.

Interviewed by Judy Waxman, Oral Historian, November 2024