She Speaks

Women's Speeches That Changed the World, from Pankhurst to Thunberg

Yvette Cooper

• Editore: Atlantic Books
• Anno: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781786499950
• Argomento: Sciences sociales
• Categoria: Féminisme et théorie féministe

A powerful celebration of brilliant speeches by women throughout the ages, from Boudica to Greta Thunberg. ' A treasure trove of trailblazers... ' Cathy NewmanLooking at lists of the greatest speeches of all time, you might think that powerful oratory is the preserve of men. But the truth is very different - countless brave and bold women have used their voices to inspire change, transform lives and radically alter history.In this timely and personal selection of exceptional speeches, Yvette Cooper MP tells the rousing story of female oratory. From Boudica to Greta Thunberg and Margaret Thatcher to Malala, Yvette introduces each speech and demonstrates how powerful and persuasive oratory can be decidedly female. Written by one of our leading public voices, this is an inspirational call for women to be heard across the globe.

BOUDICA

‘A Woman’s Resolve’

BATTLE OF WATLING STREET
Account by Tacitus, AD 60

Two thousand years ago, a British warrior queen made this incredible speech.

It is one of the earliest accounts we have of public oratory by any woman and it is a furious roar against violation.

Reading it, I find it astonishing that this speech was given so long ago, as many of the images and ideas attributed to Boudica have continued to echo through the centuries since, including in the speeches of other women found in this book.

After her husband died in AD 60, the Romans refused to accept Boudica or her daughters as the heirs to the lands and the regency of the Iceni tribe. She was flogged, her daughters raped, and other tribe elders were killed. The cruelty of the Romans provoked uprising among several of the Celtic tribes, and with Boudica leading them the united tribes took Colchester and London, burning buildings and killing thousands before finally being defeated somewhere in the Midlands at the battle of Watling Street.

According to Roman historian Tacitus, this is the speech Boudica gave to the gathered tribes before leading them into their final battle.

All we really know of Boudica are the stories told about her by men some years later. Cassius Dio describes her as ‘very tall, in appearance most terrifying, in the glance of her eye most fierce and her voice was harsh’. Tacitus describes her riding her chariot among the united tribes, her speech a rousing battle cry.

Her words are stirring. Her fierce call for ‘a righteous vengeance’ against the violation of women and country would be echoed 1,500 years later by Elizabeth I in a speech to her troops at Tilbury. And her invocation of ‘a woman’s resolve’, ready to win or die, would be seized on by the suffragettes, who used her image on their banners.

The rhetoric may owe much to Tacitus, but the legend of a female warrior leader inspiring her people, defending her daughters and her land, has become an important part of British folk history. Be she bellicose warmonger or fearless mother and queen, her story and image have been appropriated through the centuries as the Elizabethans and Victorians erected monuments to her.

By Westminster Bridge in London stands one of those monuments; a huge bronze statue of Boudica and her daughters. Arms raised to the heavens, horses tearing, hair streaming, three women charge their bronze chariot towards Big Ben – a reminder to today’s campaigners and activists as they gather around Parliament of the long tradition of women roaring against injustice and turning personal pain and humiliation into a rallying cry for action.

But now,

it is not as a woman descended from noble ancestry,

but as one of the people that I am avenging lost freedom, my scourged body,

the outraged chastity of my daughters.

Roman lust has gone so far that not our very person, nor even age or virginity, are left unpolluted.

But heaven is on the side of a righteous vengeance;

a legion which dared to fight has perished;

the rest are hiding themselves in their camp, or are thinking anxiously of flight.

They will not sustain even the din and the shout of so many thousands, much less our charge and our blows.

If you weigh well the strength of the armies, and the causes of the war, you will see that in this battle you must conquer or die.

This is a woman’s resolve; as for men, they may live and be slaves.

QUEEN ELIZABETH I

‘The Heart and Stomach of a King’

SPEECH TO THE TROOPS AT TILBURY 1588

Elizabeth I’s speech to the troops at Tilbury was the first speech I ever read. It was the Silver Jubilee year for Queen Elizabeth II, and our small-town primary school was celebrating all things Elizabethan from the sixteenth century to the twentieth. In an old Ladybird book on Queen Elizabeth I from the school library, I found this speech. I loved it – as much for the rhythms and poetry as for the sentiment and story – and I learned it by heart.

When Elizabeth I gave this speech in 1588, she had already been queen for thirty years, but England remained divided, troubled and in fear of invasion by the mighty Spanish Armada. By the time she travelled to Tilbury, the Armada had already been driven off course after struggling against the English fleet, and the threat of invasion was starting to recede. But Elizabeth’s decision to appear on horseback and address the thousands of gathering troops was clever and important.

The defeat of the Armada became a turning point for the nation’s self-confidence and self-image as an emerging military power. The power of the speech – its timing, its pageantry, its words – is that it bound together Elizabeth and England’s victory for ever after, entwining Elizabeth and England’s strength.

There are strong echoes of Boudica’s speech 1,500 years earlier: a queen seeking to inspire her troops to save her land and her people from invaders; a woman needing to establish her authority over an army of men; a speech, a spirit and an iconic image that has endured through the centuries, but with words that rely on male accounts written many years later.

Like Boudica, Elizabeth seeks first to persuade that she speaks for and with her troops – Boudica says she is ‘one of the people’, Elizabeth pledges ‘to live and die amongst you all’. Like Boudica she invokes the images of violation and dishonour – Boudica calls for vengeance for her ‘scourged body, the outraged chastity of my daughters’, Elizabeth for scorn against ‘dishonour’ and any prince who ‘dare to invade the borders of my realm’.

For Boudica the violation of the Queen is the violation of the Iceni tribe, for Elizabeth the violation of the country is the violation of the Virgin Queen. But while Boudica uses her womanhood as strength, ‘this is a woman’s resolve’, Elizabeth turns it into strength only by showing her ability to disavow it, in her most famous line: ‘I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king.’

This account of her speech comes from a letter from Leonel Sharp to the Duke of Buckingham over sixty-five years later. Sharp claims that these are her words, which he was instructed to repeat to the troops at the time. But even if the words themselves are not reliable, the theatre of the speech and the myths woven around it show the remarkable leader that Elizabeth I was.

My loving people,

we have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit our selves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery;

but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people.

Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects;

and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all;

to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust.

I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman;

but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too,

and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm;

to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms,

I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.

I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and We do assure you in the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you.

In the meantime, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject;

not doubting but by your obedience to my general,

by your concord in the camp,

and your valour in th...