Harriet Wright Laidlaw (née Burton; December 16, 1873 – January 25, 1949) was an American social reformer and suffragist.

[2] While working as an English teacher in the New York public high school system, she pursued a PhD at Columbia University, but stopped both after her marriage in 1905.

[2] James died of Parkinson's disease in 1932, after which Harriet was named as the only female member the board of directors of Standard & Poors.

[9] On November 9, 1912, she served as chairman of a torchlight parade down Fifth Avenue that drew an estimated 400,000-500,000 observers, an event that solidified her position as a leader of the suffragist movement.

She wrote many articles and columns, spoke at public gatherings, and traveled around the country, including a trip through the western United States in 1913 to help organize activists.

[3] Laidlaw became a director of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1917, and was among a group of leading suffragettes who met with former President Theodore Roosevelt to persuade him to lend support to their cause.