Great Women's Speeches

Anna Russell is an editor and writer for “The Talk of the Town” section at The New Yorker. She was previously the arts and culture correspondent for The Wall Street Journal in London, and has worked under several other publications, including Condé Nast Traveler, Newsweek, and The New York Daily News. She studied English literature at New York University. Camila Pinheiro is an illustrator, artist, and mother living in São Paulo, Brasil. She studied fashion and design in São Paulo, and worked for Dior and several agencies before opening her own studio. Her influences range from Magritte, Matisse and Mondrian to Alexander Girard.

Introduction

Elizabeth I, On the Spanish Armada, 1588
Fanny Wright, Of Free Inquiry Considered as a Means for Obtaining Just Knowledge, 1829
Maria Stewart, Farewell Address, 1833
Angelina Grimke, Anti-Slavery Speech, 1838
Sojourner Truth, Ain't I A Woman?, 1851
Victoria Woodhull, The Principles of Social Freedom, 1871
Sarah Winnemucca, Indian Affairs Statement, 1884
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Solitude of Self, 1892
Mary Church Terrell, What it Means to be Colored in the Capital of the United States, 1906
Ida B. Wells, This Awful Slaughter, 1909
Countess Markievicz, Women, Ideals and the Nation, 1909
Marie Curie, Nobel Prize Lecture: Radium and the New Concepts in Chemistry, 1911
Emmeline Pankhurst, Freedom or Death, 1913
Nellie McClung, Should Men Vote?, 1914
Jutta Bojsen-Moller, Victory for Votes, 1915
Emma Goldman, Address to the Jury, 1917
Nancy Astor, Maiden Speech in Parliament, 1920
Margaret Sanger, The Morality of Birth Control, 1921
Virginia Woolf, Professions for Women, 1931
Huda Sha'arawi, Speech at the Arab Feminist Conference, 1944
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, A Talk About Women, 1949
Eva Peron, Speech to the Descamisados, 1951
Helen Keller, The Life and Legacy of Louis Braille, 1952
Eleanor Roosevelt, The United Nations as a Bridge, 1954
Shirley Chisholm, Equal Rights for Women, 1969
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Argument in Frontiero v. Richardson, 1973
Sylvia Rivera, Y'all Better Quiet Down, 1973
Simone Veil, Speech to Parliament on Abortion Law, 1974
Indira Gandhi, True Liberation of Women, 1980
Margaret Thatcher, The Lady is Not For Turning, 1981
Ursula K. LeGuin, A Left-Handed Commencement Speech, 1983
Barbara McClintock, Nobel Lecture, 1983
Corazon Aquino, Speech During the Joint Session of the US Congress, 1986
Naomi Wolf, A Woman's Place, 1992
Severn Cullis-Suzuki, Address to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, 1992
Wilma Mankiller, Commencement Address, 1992
Toni Morrison, Nobel Lecture, 1993
Hillary Clinton, Remarks for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995
Wangari Maathai, Nobel Lecture, 2004
J.K. Rowling, Harvard Commencement Speech, 2008
Angela Merkel, Speech to the US Congress, 2009
Sheryl Sandberg, Barnard College Commencement Address, 2011
Ellen Jonson Sirleaf, Nobel Lecture, 2011
Asmaa Mahfouz, The Vlog that Helped Spark the Egyptian Revolution, 2011
Manal al-Sharif, The Drive for Freedom, 2012
Julia Gillard, The Misogyny Speech, 2012
Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Prize Lecture, 2014
Emma Watson, UN Speech on HeForShe, 2014
Jane Goodall, Caring for the Earth - Reasons for Hope, 2016
Michelle Obama, Speech at the Democratic National Convention, 2016
Gloria Steinem, Women’s March Speech, 2017
Beatrice Fihn, Nobel Lecture, 2017
Alicia Garza, An Ode to Black Women, 2017
Maya Lin, SVA Commencement Address, 2018

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