Unit 4: Women of Power (1ère Générale)

 Meghan Markle’s Speech at the United Nations Conference (March 2015)

We can hear the famous African-American actress Meghan Markle giving a speech at the UN conference. She shares an experience she went through when she was 11 years old. She saw a commercial for a dishwashing soap with a tagline that said: “Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans”. Afterwards, 2 boys in her class agreed with the tagline saying that women belonged to the kitchen. M. Markle was shocked, upset and hurt by this comment.

Her father encouraged her to write letters to women in powerful positions such as the First the Lady at the time: Hilary Clinton, and another female figure who was the Powerhouse attorney for the state of California at the time. Eventually, she wrote to the manufacturer of the soap company.

As a consequence, she received answers to her letters and on top of that, the tagline of the commercial for the product was changed to “people all over America”.

Through this action and by sharing her testimony, she wanted to encourage everyone, even young girls to stand up and fight for gender parity in all the social spheres.

Homework: Learn the lesson.