April 2023 MBR The American History Shelf

The American History Shelf

Speaking While Female
Dana Rubin
https://speakingwhilefemale.co
Real Clear Publishing
www.realclearpublishing.com
9781637550304, $30.00

https://www.amazon.com/Speaking-While-Female-Extraordinary-Speeches/dp/1637550308

In the chronicles of history, male speech-makers are typically highlighted while women are portrayed as clapping on the sidelines of their success. That's why Speaking While Female: 75 Extraordinary Speeches by American Women is especially powerful and important - it captures women's voices and showcases their strength to illustrate that women are no less capable in this department than men. They've just been understated and buried in a patriarchal society's representation of historical characters and strengths.

Dana Rubin's survey of women's voices in America exposes and captures their nuances, passion, and equally powerful presentations. Rubin herself is curator and founder of the Female Speech Bank. As a notable speaker, Rubin created this project to highlight women's voices, illustrating and returning their power to historical and social significance and, through this book, hopefully widespread knowledge.

This collection, although very accessible to individual pursuit, would really shine when utilized by drama students, in women's issues classrooms, and by women's history discussion groups. The speeches themselves raise many important points both in their content and by their choice of words and passion.

Another important note is that these works assume a chronological strength made uniform by their historical journey through women's experiences from the 1800s to modern times. Many won't anticipate that a modern-sounding subject such as Lucy Stone's impromptu speech "Disappointment is the Lot of Women" would be presented as a moving speech in October 17, 1855 at the Seventh Women's Rights Convention at Smith & Nixon's Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio. Stone's words ring with strength and protest: "The question of Woman's Rights is a practical one. The notion has prevailed that it was only an ephemeral idea; that it was but women claiming the right to smoke cigars in the streets, and to frequent barrooms. Others have supposed it a question of comparative intellect; others still, of sphere. Too much has already been said and written about woman's sphere. Trace all the doctrines to their source and they will be found to have no basis except in the usages and prejudices of the age."

This is just a single example of an eye-opening collection that corrects the absence of women in the history of America's great orators, bringing to life the topics, repression, and achievements of not only the speech-maker or writer, but her fellow female audiences at that point in time. A wide range of library collections will see popularity with this survey, which ideally will not just be studied by individuals, but utilized in group and classroom settings, as well as book clubs, as a source for debates and consideration of women's words and the force with which they were written and delivered.

Their impact on modern audiences interested in women's history and issues cannot be stressed enough.

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