American Women Speak [2 volumes] : An Encyclopedia and Document Collection of Women's Oratory

This A-to-Z compendium explores more than 150 American women activists from colonial times to the present, examining their backgrounds and the focus of their activism, and provides examples of their speeches. Throughout history, American women's oratory has crusaded for religious rights, abolitionism, and peace, as well as for Zionism, immigration, and immunization. This text examines more than 150 influential American women activists and their speeches on vital issues. Each entry outlines the speaker's motivation and provides examples of their speeches in context, supplying information about the setting, audience, reception, and lasting historical significance. This collection of women's speeches emphasizes primary sources that underscore the goals of the Common Core Standards. Entries support classroom discussion on a range of topics, from women's suffrage and birth control to civil rights and 20th- and 21st-century labor law. No other reference work compiles examples of female activism and oration across a 400-year span of history along with analysis of the speaker's intent, forum, listeners, and public and media response. * Covers issues from 1637 to 2015, representing minority perspectives and speeches * Surveys oration as a means of enlightening the public on the needs of the poor, disenfranchised, undereducated, and underemployed females * Introduces less familiar activists, such as Samantha Power and Ai-jen Poo * Includes illustrations; a timeline; an appendix of significant speeches identified by title, date, setting, and topic; and a bibliography of primary and secondary sources