We’re nearing the end of commencement season, and reviews are rolling in. Fletcher Dean offers up his faves and flops on Ragan.com; Joe Biden and Tom Brokaw get big props, along with environmentalist Paul Hawken, but he thinks Ellen DeGeneres missed in her appearance at Tulane.
I admit, I cringed at the same section of Ellen’s speech that Fletcher highlights, but overall I thought it was good. Clearly the audience did too. And since there always seem to be fewer female speakers in the spotlight, I was glad to see a woman make Fletcher’s list at all.
So here are ten terrific commencement speeches by women leaders over the years — political figures, CEOs, entertainers, academics, and more:
Meryl Streep, Vassar College, 1983
Barbara Bush, Wellesley College, 1990
Gloria Steinem, Tufts University, 1997
Anna Quindlen, Mount Holyoke College, 1999
Carly Fiorina, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, 2005
Melissa Etheridge, Berklee School of Music, 2006
Oprah Winfrey, Stanford University, 2008
Margaret Edson, Smith College, 2008
Michelle Obama, UC Merced, 2009. (Check out the student video that got the First Lady to come to Merced in the first place.)
And who could forget these words to the graduates, which were NOT delivered by Kurt Vonnegut, but rather appeared as a column by Chicago Trib writer Mary Schmich:
