by
_____
History is full of examples of women who’ve stepped up and spoken out for causes they believed in. Thousands of them, from all walks of life, from around the world, throughout time.
But you wouldn’t know it from the history books.
I know, because I looked. I researched more than 100 speech collections and anthologies, and here’s what I found — or rather, what I didn’t find: many speeches by women.
If we don’t recognize and remember women’s speech, we’re not just shortchanging ourselves. We’re also squandering an opportunity to pass the knowledge on to new generations.
Overwhelmingly, the books that purport to present “the very best” in rhetoric through the ages have overlooked, ignored and forgotten the powerful history of women’s public speaking.
This is our inheritance, and it matters.
If we don’t recognize and remember women’s speech, we’re not just shortchanging ourselves. We’re also squandering an opportunity to pass the knowledge on to new generations — so they too can become agents of change.
You can watch my TEDxWomen talk on the subject — “Unlocking the Secret History of Women’s Speech,” delivered last last year in Bloomington, Indiana.
© Copyright 2020
________________________________
Want to talk? Reach me at dana@danarubin.com