ACB2 - Speaking to Inform manual - resources to inform
Women in TM
L&G
Today I’m going to expound on one of my favourite topics, and one that, I hate to boast, but that I am considered a bit of an expert in. I have a fair bit of experience and people do consult me on this topic. In fact, I have achieved a certain level of advancement and have been acknowledged as such via various awards. That topic is, as the title of my speech suggests, toastmasters.
Specifically, the history of women in TM.
I’m sure all of you were as fascinated as me when Annette told us about a month ago that for many years women actually weren’t allowed in TM. It turns out that Ralph designed TM for men in around 1920s. It was not meant for women and they were banned from going. So for years TM was a place men could meet and develop themselves.
Now what would you do if you were banned from going somewhere? Probably not go, right?
But not if you’re a woman. So what did they do? Eaten up by curiosity about what went on there, they secretly infiltrated TM by misleading the men into thinking they were men too, notably the notorious Helen Blanchard in the early 70’s. She dressed up as a man and went by the pseudonym “Homer”.
According to records, Homer was so good at acting like a man that he was actually welcomed at TM meetings. He was a naturally good speaker and when it was his turn to speak everyone came that evening. In fact, he was so popular his rise through the TM ranks was nothing short of meteoric and he was soon to become District Governor.
It’s true the guys were concerned about some aspects of Homer’s behaviour, such as his bringing soup to meetings, his seemingly over-organisation and attention to detail, his always being on time, but in those days you were already getting all weird types from all over the world. So records indicate that they never realised he was a woman.
Helen’s infiltration provided women with the ammunition they needed to eventually have themselves officially allowed into TM in August of 1973.
What Helen had done was finally discovered but only after 1973 when she could legally become a TM member. Of course, you would expect she would have been expelled from TM immediately. She was not. She wasn’t thrown in jail. She wasn’t even had up for corruption. Instead she was elected to President. Sound familiar?
Obviously, with women present, there were radical changes. No more beer was served at intervals. No TV if there was a big rugby game on. Venues had to quickly be changed from interesting places like “The Slug and Lettuce” and “Duck and Dive” to Nedbank Office Park and “Centurion Community Centre”.
Since then Tm has turned out to be quite popular with women. In fact the numbers of women grew rapidly till today, when there are about 130 000.
These days you get The Women of Biosciences Toastmasters club, Professional Women Toastmasters club, I hear there’s a proposal to change our name to Presidents Women TM Club.
With all the women joining up to be TM and future leaders, you might be wondering whose looking after the children? Who’s doing the cooking? Who’s feeding the puppies at home?
Possibly no one. There have been huge increases in social problems. Children are turning to drink and drugs. Crime and corruption is on the increase. Nigerians are becoming drug lords. There is massive human overpopulation. We’ve entered a stage of global warming.
This slide shows how correlation between women in TM and global warming. One needs to be careful with such data and cause and effect. Did women cause GW by joining TM or did they join TM because of GW? I’m not suggesting anything, but you have to admit, the statistically speaking, the correlation is just too high to ignore.
But I’m sure, now that they’ve more or less taken over, they’ll find a solution to the problems they’ve caused.
There is one last slide I’d like to show. It demonstrates the amazing TM transformation process, from persona non grata to president international in only 6 years:
L&G
Today I’m going to expound on one of my favourite topics, and one that, I hate to boast, but that I am considered a bit of an expert in. I have a fair bit of experience and people do consult me on this topic. In fact, I have achieved a certain level of advancement and have been acknowledged as such via various awards. That topic is, as the title of my speech suggests, toastmasters.
Specifically, the history of women in TM.
I’m sure all of you were as fascinated as me when Annette told us about a month ago that for many years women actually weren’t allowed in TM. It turns out that Ralph designed TM for men in around 1920s. It was not meant for women and they were banned from going. So for years TM was a place men could meet and develop themselves.
Now what would you do if you were banned from going somewhere? Probably not go, right?
But not if you’re a woman. So what did they do? Eaten up by curiosity about what went on there, they secretly infiltrated TM by misleading the men into thinking they were men too, notably the notorious Helen Blanchard in the early 70’s. She dressed up as a man and went by the pseudonym “Homer”.
According to records, Homer was so good at acting like a man that he was actually welcomed at TM meetings. He was a naturally good speaker and when it was his turn to speak everyone came that evening. In fact, he was so popular his rise through the TM ranks was nothing short of meteoric and he was soon to become District Governor.
It’s true the guys were concerned about some aspects of Homer’s behaviour, such as his bringing soup to meetings, his seemingly over-organisation and attention to detail, his always being on time, but in those days you were already getting all weird types from all over the world. So records indicate that they never realised he was a woman.
Helen’s infiltration provided women with the ammunition they needed to eventually have themselves officially allowed into TM in August of 1973.
What Helen had done was finally discovered but only after 1973 when she could legally become a TM member. Of course, you would expect she would have been expelled from TM immediately. She was not. She wasn’t thrown in jail. She wasn’t even had up for corruption. Instead she was elected to President. Sound familiar?
Obviously, with women present, there were radical changes. No more beer was served at intervals. No TV if there was a big rugby game on. Venues had to quickly be changed from interesting places like “The Slug and Lettuce” and “Duck and Dive” to Nedbank Office Park and “Centurion Community Centre”.
Since then Tm has turned out to be quite popular with women. In fact the numbers of women grew rapidly till today, when there are about 130 000.
These days you get The Women of Biosciences Toastmasters club, Professional Women Toastmasters club, I hear there’s a proposal to change our name to Presidents Women TM Club.
With all the women joining up to be TM and future leaders, you might be wondering whose looking after the children? Who’s doing the cooking? Who’s feeding the puppies at home?
Possibly no one. There have been huge increases in social problems. Children are turning to drink and drugs. Crime and corruption is on the increase. Nigerians are becoming drug lords. There is massive human overpopulation. We’ve entered a stage of global warming.
This slide shows how correlation between women in TM and global warming. One needs to be careful with such data and cause and effect. Did women cause GW by joining TM or did they join TM because of GW? I’m not suggesting anything, but you have to admit, the statistically speaking, the correlation is just too high to ignore.
But I’m sure, now that they’ve more or less taken over, they’ll find a solution to the problems they’ve caused.
There is one last slide I’d like to show. It demonstrates the amazing TM transformation process, from persona non grata to president international in only 6 years:
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