Recovering a pioneering woman's lost voice

Throughout time women have used their ideas, beliefs, and voices to speak out and spark transformative change. Time and again, what they said was not written down or published — and their words have been forgotten.

"Give Kate a Voice" is an interactive video project that brings to life the long-lost voice of one of history's most influential leaders —the New Zealand suffragist Kate Wilson Sheppard — as she advocates for gender equality.

It was created to celebrate 125 years since New Zealand women won the right to vote, part of the "Whatkatū wāhine — women stand up!" nationwide celebration.

Sheppard was New Zealand's most celebrated champion for women's rights. In the 1880s she travelled the country, campaigning tirelessly on behalf of "the woman's vote." By all accounts her speaking style was formidable. When she traveled to Britain to support the suffrage movement there, she was in great demand on the podium.

She took up other causes like dress reform — the movement to abolish corsets and other restrictive women's clothing. She rode her bicycle around Wellington, promoting cycling and physical activity for women. She endorsed temperance.

But it was as leader of the suffrage movement that she make her greatest impact, organizing and inspiring hundreds of other women to raise their voices and join the cause. Their strategies included political lobbying, protests, petitions, pamphlets, and hundreds of public talks.

Kate Sheppard's words mattered.

On September 19, 1893, New Zealand became the first county in the world to grant women the right to vote. This landmark event captured the global attention and inspired a cascade of suffrage victories in other countries.

Kate Sheppard led the way in New Zealand —?and New Zealand led the way in the world.

Her remarkable contributions are celebrated in her home country, where she's known as the nation's "founding mother." Her face appears on New Zealand's $10 bill. Her silhouette blinks at pedestrians in the crosswalks of the capital city Wellington. Her story inspired a punk rock musical, "That Bloody Woman," that's played across the country and been revived several times.

But to the rest of the world, Kate Sheppard is unknown.

Throughout time women have spoken out for causes they believed in. Their words helped create the world we live in, yet they're scarcely known.

In "Give Kate a Voice, eight Kiwi women set out to change that, embodying the spirit of Sheppard as they read excerpts from her writing. Contributors include author and activist Theresa Gattung, motivational speaker Fatumata Bah, entrepreneur and activist Alexia Hilbertidou, New Zealand Member of Parliament Louisa Wall, actress and director Miriam McDowell, disability rights activist Minnie Baragwanath, singer Ladi6, and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.

The women wear period clothes and enact scenes of domesticity and resistance: politely drinking tea, offering a tray of cookies and then dropping it on the floor, balancing the scales of justice, waving a flag — all while reciting Sheppard's words:

"We are tired of having a sphere doled out to us, and being told anything outside that sphere is unwomanly. We want to be natural, just for a change. We want to be treated like ordinary human beings, with feelings, thoughts, desires, and aspirations - all requiring opportunities for self development. We must be ourselves at all risks. So let women learn, forever learn. Forward, forever forward. Woman, take the matter up."

It sounds perfectly logical to our ears today — but thanks to this ingenious recreation we're taken back to 1880s and '90s, when suffragists fought a monumental uphill battle, with an uncertain outcome.

But one question remains unanswered: did Sheppard actually speak those words?

According to the project's Creative Director Charles Anderson, the language comes from the 1992 book, The Woman Question: Writings by Women Who Won the Vote. Anderson says the book references a publication called "Address on The Subject of Woman Suffrage — Leaflet following 1889 WCTU Convention."

The minutes of the W.C.T.U’s annual meeting, Anderson says, make it clear that Kate Sheppard was the leaflet's author.

But in the 1880s, "address" could refer to a printed argument or a public speech —?possibly both. We don't know for sure what language Sheppard used to sway public opinion when she spoke at town halls, women's groups, and public rallies across the country. We probably never will.

I've included Sheppard's words in the Speaking While Female Speech Bank, the first-ever online repository of women's speech through the ages. What a shame that all we have from her extensive public speaking career is a fragment that she may not have actually spoken.

But reading her words as part of Speaking While Female, in the context of so many other hundreds of female speakers throughout history, gives us a new lens through which to see women's activism, agency, and impact.

Kate Sheppard's story is all too common. Throughout time women have spoken out for causes they believed in. Their words helped create the world we live in, yet they're scarcely known. We honor them by remembering.

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My name is Dana Rubin, and I help women put their ideas into the world powerfully and persuasively. I’m the founder of?The Speaking While Female Speech Bank, and the editor of the forthcoming?Speaking While Female: 50?Extraordinary?Speeches by American Women?(Real Clear | Fall 2021).

I'm opening up a discussion about the role of women’s public speech in history and invite you to take part. We need to hear the best ideas from everyone to address our toughest problems — so let's improve this world together.

? Copyright 2019