THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Whitney Adams

May 25, 1946 – September 23, 2007

“A recent FCC survey showed that television portrays women as housewives, secretaries or nurses, and that is it. You can change all the employment rules and open all the doors, but women aren’t going to apply for those jobs if they still see only stereotypes of  ‘a woman’s place’ on television.” – Whitney Adams, NOW, February 1973.

Attorney and advocate for women’s rights. Member of NOW’s National Board at the age of 25. Head of the National Organization for Women FCC task force. Challenged discrimination against women in television broadcasting and at major private employers. Federal Reserve Board, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Assistant United States Attorney. Served as Assistant General Counsel for Litigation at the Securities and Exchange Commission and Deputy General Counsel for Litigation at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Co-founded Cricket Technologies, a company specializing in forensic electronic discovery. First woman Chair of the American Bar Association’s White Collar Crime Committee; a Vice Chair of the ABA’s Criminal Law Section; and a Barrister of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court. First woman Chair of the Washington Federal Court’s lawyer disciplinary committee. Served on the Virginia State Treasury Board; the Virginia State Council for Higher Education; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Labor Policy Committee; the Northern Virginia Technology Council; and the Board of Directors of the Greater Washington Boys and Girls Clubs. Candidate for the Virginia legislature in 1998. B.A. from Randolph Macon Woman’s College. M.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  J.D. from George Washington University.