Barbara Bush, spoke at the 1990 graduation ceremony for Wellesley College which is a women's liberal arts college. This essay will first provide a brief summary of the speech that was given. After this summary I will discuss why it was it is important to know the history preceding her speech. Following this I will talk about why it was important for her to understand the circumstances surrounding her speech. As well the benefits of bringing Mrs. Gorbachev to speak with her and what this meant to the woman of Wellesley. Finally the strategies she incorporated into her speech to appeal to the woman of Wellesley.
The students at Wellesley didn’t want Mrs. Bush to speak because they felt her success was only through her husband, rather than as an independent strong woman. She understood their reaction, and joked "I was twenty, myself." She considered the invitation to speak at Wellesley as a chance to say what she believed was both an opportunity and a conflict that was sole to women of that time, which was the desire to have a family and a career. She confronted the complaints about her being selected to speak at the graduation and as a role model for woman and advised them to "respect difference [and] be compassionate” and that “there is more to life than a job”. She then suggested that one day someone in the audience might follow in her footsteps as the president's spouse. "And I wish him well," the audiences feedback was obviously positive with an uproar of laughter.
Barbra Bush was scheduled to speak at the graduation ceremony at Wellesley on June 1, 1990. Mrs. Bush notes that “these are exciting times,” (Bush; par. 2) and that “we are in a transitional period right now, fascinating and exhilarating times” (Bush; par. 14). She is referring, to the fall of the Berlin wall in and the process of Germany’s reunification (Berlin Wall). This occasion was also the first appearance of Raisa Gorbachev in front of a live American audience; their speeches were...