Introduction

      Words have the power to change the world. A speech that is masterfully delivered, well timed and beautifully constructed can change someone's mind, open their heart and inspire them to act. Women and men have been making speeches and making a difference in the world around them for as long as civilisation has existed. It is time to hold up the speeches made by women, so often overlooked, to examine their power, extract their wisdom and spread them as examples for other women and girls.

      Why I wrote this book

      I have chosen each of the forty speeches included in this book for the lessons it contains. All of the women featured here used their voice, and their will, to bring about change in some way. I believe we should celebrate their commitment and their decision to speak up, without needing to interrogate the significance of their historic contribution.

      My purpose is not to criticise either the content or delivery, and nor is it to suggest how the speech might have been done better. I don't provide any analysis of the opinions, ideology or beliefs of any of those whose words I have selected.

If you were to pull down from the bookshelf any anthology of famous speeches you would likely find the content overwhelmingly skewed towards men. I have found such speeches to be sources of inspiration and instruction throughout my life, but I have come to wonder if the gender imbalance is justified. Of course, we know that women, historically, have not enjoyed equality when it comes to positions of power or platforms for speechmaking, so perhaps that is our default explanation. Do you accept, however, that because women did not have a platform, they did not have a voice?

      I have come to the realisation that, in my mind, I lived in a post-feminist world. I believed my teachers and my parents when they told me I could do whatever I wanted to do. The men in my life — my dad, husband business partner and close friends — have never dissuaded me of this belief. I have surrounded myself with empowered and intelligent women who have carved out their place in the world. But when you look at the facts — the number of women in leadership roles in business and politics, for example, or the pay gap and rates of violence against women — I recognised that I have been deluding myself.

      So what can I do to close the gap? Well, speaking has always been my thing. I am particularly interested in the intersection of communication and leadership and in my professional practice I work with people to help them find their mojo. We can all learn from the great speakers who have gone before us, no matter their gender. It is my hope that this collection will help other women develop their communication confidence and skill through seeing examples they might be better able to relate to.

      At first glance, you may think some of the speakers identified in the pages of this book are too different from you to provide any useful advice. What could Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned in the sixteenth century, possibly have to teach a young woman working hard to be noticed in her job? How could a business leader extract any meaningful insight from the stories shared by a Russian novelist? Could a lawyer or an engineer learn from the early suffragettes? When you dig a bit deeper, however, you realise we can all learn something from each of these speeches. And these lessons can be found when we examine each speech according to its persuasive intent.

      How to use this book

This book is more than a celebration of the speeches given by women. It is also a practical toolkit that you can use to help you inspire, motivate or educate others. We never just speak for the sake of it. When making a speech to any number of people, large or small, you want them to feel something. Similarly, your presentations are delivered to achieve something. Whatever your purpose, you will find guidance from those who have gone before you.

      The ten chapters in this book, each including four speeches, have been created to organise the collection into categories of purpose, rather than a simple chronological order. For example, in the following chapters you can find:

      The lessons provided from each of the speeches can be applied to your own practice of communication. Sometimes you will need to present in a way that encourages people to do something, to act in some way, or to change their behaviour. Plenty of trailblazers are included here for you to follow. At other times, of course, a softer touch is what you need, to open a closed mind — just a crack — so that you might sow the seeds of change, and examples of these speeches are also included here.

      Among the women featured in this book, you will find a wide variation in style. Some are confident, some are shy. Some are fighters and some are thinkers. Some have built up their public-speaking skills over a lifetime and some are uncomfortable in the limelight. All are worthy of listening to and learning from.

      We tend to think rational arguments are formed purely based on fact. However, eloquence — and guidance — can also be found in unexpected places. Many speeches through this book can help you learn how to animate your technical or logical presentations to make other people see things your way.

And along with the beauty in the speeches that serves to bring people closer together, lessons can be found here too. If you have ever faced the challenge of fostering inclusion, you will no doubt be moved by the speeches in this book that enhance existing bonds and create new connections among seemingly disparate groups. And finally you have the treat of looking to the words of some master storytellers to encourage you in the ongoing journey of developing your own voice.

      But this book is more than a collection of inspiring and powerful speeches. I also provide some context as an introduction for each speech. And after the inclusion of each speech (either the whole speech or a substantial extract from it), I then break down three observations that make the speech so powerful. So you not only have ‘what she said' but also ‘how she did that’.

      This book is intended as a celebration of diversity. Once you start to look you will find gems of oratory in every pocket of humanity. No limits based on ethnicity, background, education, race, age or even gender exist when it comes to the power of the spoken word. Once I set my intention these speeches were not hard to find. We have only to look a little further than the prevailing popular orations, no matter how good these might be. It is time to cast the net wider.

      In the words of Margaret Atwood, ‘a word, after a word, after a word has power’. So let's learn how to harness and leverage the power we all have.