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Welcome to the Archives of Women's Political Communication

The Archives of Women's Political Communication is an online archives launched in 2006 by the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University devoted entirely to women's political speech. The archives houses the speeches and campaign advertising of U.S. women senators and representatives, cabinet members, Supreme Court justices, governors and lieutenant governors, and first and second ladies; international women leaders; and recipients of the Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics at Iowa State University. It also features the speeches of historically significant women, social activists and women who have used their position of celebrity to advocate for political causes.

Speeches and ads are continually being gathered by our staff and added to the archives. Please feel free to contact us with any suggestions for additions to our collection.

The archives is made possible through a generous gift from the late Richard and Mary Jo Stanley.

The archives is designed to serve as a resource for faculty and students in a variety of fields and for members of the public interested in women's political communication. The political affiliations of the women included in the archives or sentiments expressed in the speeches and ads do not necessarily represent the views of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics or Iowa State University, and their inclusion in the archives should not be considered an endorsement by the center or the university.

Featured profile
Loretta Lynch
Loretta Elizabeth Lynch served as the attorney general of the United States from April 27, 2015 to January 20, 2017, becoming the first African American woman to hold this office—the second African American after Eric Holder and the second woman after Janet Reno. Lynch was born on May 21, 1959 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her father was a Baptist minister who opened his church's basement to civil rights leaders and students who organized lunch counter sit-ins in North Carolina. As a child, she and her father would often watch court proceedings in the courthouse in Durham, North Carolina. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and American literature from Harvard College in 1981 and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1984. After working as a litigation associate, Lynch joined the Eastern District as a drug and violent-crime prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office in 1990. From 1994 to 1998, she served as the chief of the Long Island office, and from 1998 to 1999, she was the chief assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District and headed the Brooklyn office. In 1999, she was nominated to serve as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New… More
"Progress is calling to you to make no pause. Act!"
Carrie Chapman Catt (August 26, 1920)