Gifts of Speech

Gifts of Speech "is a non-profit project, sponsored by Sweet Briar College, dedicated to preserving and creating access to speeches by influential, contemporary women from around the world. The idea for the project originated in 1989 when Liz Kent, a college librarian, was asked to help a student find a speech by Gloria Steinem. Mrs. Kent assumed it would be easy to locate a speech by Ms. Steinem, and was surprised when she could not find one in any of the resources available within her small college library." This episode inspired Gifts of Speech, which began in fall of 1996 with a donation by Dr. John Jaffe, the Director of Sweet Briar College Libraries and Integrated Learning Resources. "An address list of 85 prominent women in leadership positions around the world was compiled and letters were sent to the United States, Ireland, Kenya, Canada, England and Sri Lanka. In response to those 85 letters, 74 speeches were generously returned." Since then, more speeches have been added, and you can browse under the last name of the speech maker, or chronologically. Be sure to check this website out!

The Women's History Project