What She Said The Art of Inspiring Action through Speech

**Winner of the Communications and Sales Book of the Year and Winner of Cover Design at the Australian Business Book Awards 2022**

Learn how spoken words can change a mind, a community and the world with this collection of remarkable speeches by women

What She Said is an inspiring collection of speeches from passionate and persuasive women from around the world and throughout history. The included speakers come from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, ages, and education levels, demonstrating how women from all walks of life can use the power of speech to bring change.

Author Monica Lunin has curated and analysed 40 of the greatest speeches made by strong and empowering women from all around the world. From Queen Elizabeth I to Maya Angelou, Greta Thunberg, Julia Gillard, and Michelle Obama, What She Said shows not only what was said but also how the speech worked and why it was effective.

In this insightful exploration of female wit, persuasion, and leadership, you’ll find an extract of the speech, a biography of the speaker and a breakdown of the qualities that made it so remarkable.

You’ll learn how these women:

• inspired, moved, and persuaded an audience
• understood and empathised with a crowd
• effectively argued a position
• opened hearts and minds
• shared thoughts and insights.

Across 10 chapters, each representing a different theme—from inspiration to activism to storytelling—What She Said will teach you to harness and leverage the power of the spoken word, offering the voices and tools to help you bring about the change you want to see in your world.

Monica Lunin is a communications expert, speaker and writer based in Sydney Australia. She is the co-owner of MOJOLOGIC, a consultancy that specialises in developing the skills of communication, influence and leadership.

Introduction v

1. Providing guidance, advice and wisdom 1

Michelle Obama: When they go low, we go high 5

Nora Ephron: Be the heroine of your life 15

Florence Nightingale: What makes a good nurse 25

Virginia Woolf: Shakespeare’s sister 35

2. Sharing complex thoughts and ideas 47

Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability 51

Hannah Arendt: What remains? The language remains 61

Marie Curie: Radium and the new concepts in chemistry 71

Margaret Atwood: Payback: Debt and the shadow side of wealth 79

3. Opening hearts and minds 87

Eleanor Roosevelt: On the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 91

Nancy Astor: Maiden speech 101

Malala Yousafzai: One girl among many 109

Naomi Klein: This changes everything 119

4. Beckoning the waves of feminism 127

Mary Wollstonecraft: I have a dream 131

Emmeline Pankhurst: Why we are militant 139

Betty Friedan: Call to women’s strike for equality 149

Audre Lorde: The Transformation of Silence 157

5. Demanding respect 165

Julia Gillard: Misogyny speech 169

Sylvia Rivera: Y’all better quiet down 177

Margaret Thatcher: The lady’s not for turning 183

Hillary Clinton: Women’s rights are human rights 191

6. Arguing a position 199

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Argument in Frontiero v. Richardson 203

Barbara Jordan: Articles of Impeachment during Watergate 215

Margaret Sanger: The morality of birth control 225

Angela Merkel: Speech to US Congress 231

7. Inspiring action 239

Queen Elizabeth I: The heart and stomach of a king 243

Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a woman? 251

Dolores Ibárruri: They shall not pass! 259

Greta Thunberg: Our house is on fire 265

8. Using humour to connect and persuade 273

Nellie McClung: Should men vote? 277

Dorothy Parker: Hollywood, the land I won’t return to 285

Roxane Gay: Confessions of a bad feminist 295

Ruby Wax: What’s so funny about mental illness? 303

9. Encouraging inclusion 311

Jacinda Ardern: They were New Zealanders. They are us 315

Faith Bandler: Faith, hope and reconciliation 323

Indira Gandhi: Last speech of Indira Gandhi at Bhubaneswar 333

Linda Burney: Inaugural speech 341

10. Harnessing the power of stories 351

Eva Kor: Surviving the Angel of Death 355

Josephine Baker: March on Washington 365

Svetlana Alexievich: On the battle lost 375

Maya Angelou: On the pulse of morning 383

Sources 391

Index 397 

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.