Stephens College

The one thing that I was most overwhelmed by when I wrote all these books about women’s history was that the vision of what women could do – that had existed from the beginning of civilization – the idea of women’s limits, the idea that women were meant to stay home, that men were meant to lead; women should defer; that men were strong, women were weak; that men controlled the public world, women controlled the domestic life. All of those rules that had restricted the possibilities for women from the beginning of time ended in my lifetime. The thing is they ended for you. History made a seismic shift just recently. It lifted up a platform for you. For the New Women who grew up just being themselves without any of the restrictions that had held forth before that. We have been waiting for you for all of Western history. And here you are today. And I cannot wait to see what you do. You are special and you are chosen and you have been called to an amazing role, but first have lots of desserts tonight.