Women as Public Speakers

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21716, 3 February 1934, Page 6 (Supplement)

Women as Public Speakers

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It, is rare nowadays to go to a meeting of any kind—political, social, scientific, religious or philanthropic—where women are the speakers, without being struck by the admirable manner in which women speak. The general level of speaking is very high, remarks an overseas writer, commenting on the number of Englishwomen who have distinguished themselves as public speakers. One of the most impressive of women speakers to-day is Miss Maude Rojuen, who is able to hold the attention cf a large and varied congregation Sunday after Sunday. She is earnest, sincere and weighty. She knows exactly what she means to say and conveys her meaning quite definitely to her hearers. I have heard several other women preachers, but so far I have not been in any way struck by their oratory. But if we have no outstanding woman orator we have a very large number of excellent speakers. Women speakers are much in request at political meetings, and they make admirable presidents and chairwomen. One great orator has recently passed aws.y in the person of Mrs. Annie Besant. Those who listened to this remarkable woman even in her latter days, when she had naturally lost some of "her earlier qualities, will never forget her eloquence, her magnetic personality, her wonderful flow of beautiful language and her capacity to sway a great audience. We shall not, I fancy, look upon her like again—she was urique, and apart from that she really belonged to a generation of men orators whose type has also passed away. . . Viscountess Snowaen is a charming speaker, natural, easy, with much to say on which she feels intensely. Listen to her on musical subjects, and you realise her emotional depths. She

is a most experienced speaker, is quite at ease addressing any assembly, and is consequently in great demand among "all sorts and conditions " of folkfashionable, political, democratic. To enlist her aid is to make a success of any meeting. The Duchess of Atholl, with more fervour and emotion, might be an orator; she just misses that title to fame. She is master, or rather mistress, of any subject on which she speaks; her language is always well chosen and in the classical tradition, but she is too cold and logical to sway the multitude, and you miss that something that makes " the whole world kin." Our first woman M.P., Viscountess Astor, possesses,, of course, that " touch of nature," that warm, human atmosphere that makes her so attractive on the platform, though, at the same time, you may be greatly annoyed by her Puck-like ways and.her efforts to arouse laughter in her audience. She is the enfant terrible, of the House of Commons; lovable, generous and humane, but perhaps of too volatile a nature to make a really valuable public speaker on serious subjects. Margaret Bondfield was always listened to with attention when she spoke in the House of Commons, and her absence from that assembly is greatly to be regretted. She has seen life, hqrd life, at first-hand, and she speaks from her heart. She is solid, but not brilliant, and entirely sincere. I am inclined to think she appeals more to men than to women. How utterly different she is from her former colleague, Ellen Wilkinson, whose public speeches are a reflection of her light, gay, clever personality. I suppose she is a serious politician, otherwise why did a great industrial constituency once elect her to the House of Commons? She is very versatile and very popular with audiences.