About the Archive
In order to preserve and promote women's political rhetoric, the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University has developed a virtual archive of women's political communication. Women are gaining public office in increasing numbers, but their voices remain largely underrepresented in collections and archives of political communication. For this reason, we have constructed this virtual archive devoted entirely to women in politics and their speech.
The archive of women's political communication consists of a web site developed to guide scholars to present and past women political leaders from throughout the world and their speech. The web site will include speeches by Carrie Chapman Catt from the extensive collection in the Iowa State University Library, as well as speeches from other past and present women political leaders from the United States and other countries. Speeches, both past and present, are continually being gathered from other archives and by contacting individuals and requesting examples of their political speech.
In the future, the Center plans to expand the archive to contain both audio and video campaign spots by contemporary women of diverse backgrounds who have run for political office in the Unites States as well as in other countries.
The archive is designed to serve as a resource for faculty teaching courses and/or conducting research in political science, speech communication, women's studies, sociology, history and other fields. It also will serve as a resource for students and scholars, both on- and off-campus, as well as members of the public interested in women's political communication. The goal of this project is to promote lifelong learning of women in political leadership throughout the world to all who access these collections.
The Archive of Women's Political Communication is made possible through a generous gift from Richard and Mary Jo Stanley to develop a significant research collection focusing on women's political leadership in the United States and throughout the world. This gift allowed the Center to purchase the equipment and services needed to create the archive as well as financial support to hire students to research and collect speeches and update the archive. Richard Stanley, who earned bachelor's degrees in both mechanical and electrical engineering from Iowa State University, is chair of The Stanley Group, Iowa's largest engineering firm; and chair and president of The Stanley Foundation, a private organization that works toward the goal of securing peace with freedom and justice by encouraging study, research and discussion of international issues. Mary Jo Stanley also graduated from Iowa State, earning a bachelor's degree in home economics. She is a director emerita of The Stanley Foundation. The Stanleys are longtime supporters of Iowa State University and the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics.