From the nation's beginnings, efforts have been made to silence US women. Yet they spoke. This biographical dictionary, the first of two companion volumes, give their voices new recognition. Selecting 37 orators, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell provides entries on a diverse group of women. All were ground-breakers - suffragists, the first lawyers, ministers, physicians, labour organisers, newspaper editors and publishers, historians, educators, even soldiers. The volume opens with Campbell's introduction and then provides essays on each of the women included. Each entry begins with brief biographical information and then focuses on the woman's public life in discourse. Each entry includes an analysis of the subject's rhetoric. Entries conclude with information on primary sources, critical works, key rhetorical documents, and selected sources of historical and biographical information.