WOMEN SPEAKERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22568, 11 May 1935, Page 21

WOMEN SPEAKERS

WHERE THEY FAIL. It is extraordinary that, although women have now penetrated almost every sphere of public life, still comparatively few of them are capable of doing themselves justice when they have t( make a speech (says a writer in the Daily Mail). At home their gift of tongue is usually superlative. But deprive them of the benign tolerance of their family circles, and, for all oratorical purposes, they are tongue-tied. I happen to have earned a most unenviable reputation for making amusing after-dinner speeches—unenviable chiefly because the inexorable tyranny of having to be humorous not infrequently drives me to my wits' end. And the honour thrust upon me is irksome and embarrassing for another and equally cogent reason. I am now badgered (with disarming politeness, admittedly,) by ambitious women who naively request me to waste my time writing speeches that will not waste theirs. Every public speaker knows that proposing the toast of " The Ladies" is an exceedingly tricky business. But it is oratory in the kindergarten stage compared with the effort required to interpret what a woman would like to say who has not the foggiest idea what it is or how to say it. The one and only man who might have made a success of the job is William Sharp, alias Fiona Macleod —but he, alas! is dead.

Women speech makers—with a few brilliant exceptions—can be classified into three groups. There are those whose matter is superior to the manner 01 its presentation. There are others whot-e manner of presentation disguises very thinly the poor quality of the matter. And there is that large and growin ,' section whose natter and me"thods are calculated to dissipate the good effects of a good dinner with almost startling suddenness. It is my belief that women, as a whole, continue to fail as speech makers because they will not discover for themselves that one of the secrets of public speaking is a cunning and subtle combination of art and artfulness. Women, in fact, ought be superlatively good public speakers, for there is very little in art that they cannot feel and very little about artfulness that they do not know. Another secret of successful afterdinner speaking that strangely eludes most women is the fact that virtually no effort of wit is required to make a well-fed audience laugh. And the simplest of all methods of producing this comforting and encouraging effect is the exploitation of the gentle art of pulling one's own leg. A story told against oneself will reduce the most stubborn and phlegmatic audience to tears —of laughter. And this is precisely the last thing in the world that a self-respecting woman will agree to do. The art of the ridiculous —in the sense in which it overflows the pages of Pickwick, for example—is almost non-existent in women.

And, finally, here are a few "tips" for women who aspire to challenge man's supreme oratory! (1) When you get up to speak, have something to say, say it, and sit dowi. (2) Remember that you are addressing your audience as a whole. Therefore speak clearly and use your lovely eyes to focus the attention of those seated furthest away from you. It flatters them and, if your speech is reasonably decent in quality, they will flatter you. (3) Don't keep on telling the chairman how honoured you feel in being asked to speak. No man likes to be told publicly that he has no sense of selection. (4) Remember with humility in your heart that a short speech is only a little better than no speech at all.