Lynn Sherr
Field: letters
Journalist and Wellesley alumna Lynn Sherr reflects on how opportunities for women have changed since her 1963 graduation, drawing on her career in network television news and her role covering and participating in the feminist movement. She celebrates progress in women's status in politics, law, and public life while noting ongoing challenges for women in the developing world. She urges graduates to remember the history that made their opportunities possible, embrace feminism, defend facts, and continue the work of earlier generations.
Key moments
- 01 Contrasts the barred doors women faced in 1963 with the open opportunities graduates now enjoy
- 02 Recounts becoming a reporter to tell the truth and living through the glory years of network journalism
- 03 Shares anecdotes about Justices Ginsburg and O'Connor and women's growing presence in public life
- 04 Describes women's struggles worldwide and heartening examples of progress in Liberia, Nicaragua, and Congo
- 05 Quotes Susan B. Anthony and urges graduates to carry on the revolution and aim for the presidency
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Lynn Sherr at Wellesley, 2010
A Wellesley address about feminist history, journalism, ambition, sisterhood, and carrying forward the unfinished work of equality.
Speech arc
- 01Wellesley College
Opening move
- 02Official transcript
Speech beat
- 03Royal Purple class
Speech beat
- 04Journalism
Speech beat
- 05Feminist movement
Speech beat
- 06Unmade jobs
Speech beat
- 07Sisterhood
Speech beat
- 08Go for it
Final charge
Homecoming: A Wellesley alumna returns in the class color
Sherr begins with affection for Wellesley’s rituals, speaking to the Royal Purple class through the voice of someone shaped by the same institution.
Occasion
The address is explicitly local: campus memory, alumnae identity, family gratitude, and class pride frame the advice.
Voice
Humor and warmth keep the ceremony intimate before the speech widens into history and public purpose.
Audience
The graduates are treated as inheritors of a women’s college tradition with civic obligations beyond the day.
Sherr begins with affection for Wellesley’s rituals, speaking to the Royal Purple class through the voice of someone shaped by the same institution.
History: The women’s movement is both story and assignment
Sherr draws on journalism and feminist history to show that progress is made by people willing to report, participate, and push institutions forward.
Witness
Her professional life becomes evidence that telling the story can also mean entering the struggle being reported.
Continuity
The address places graduates in a lineage that includes suffrage, civil rights, newsroom change, and women claiming public authority.
Work left
Equality is presented as unfinished, requiring new actors rather than passive celebration of earlier gains.
Sherr draws on journalism and feminist history to show that progress is made by people willing to report, participate, and push institutions forward.
Ambition: Step into work that has not yet made room for you
The speech’s practical ethic is to enter spaces before they are fully welcoming and to make roles larger by occupying them well.
Risk
Graduates are encouraged to move before permission is complete or precedent is clear.
Craft
Curiosity, persistence, and the discipline of observation become tools for making a career meaningful.
Authority
Titles follow impact; leadership starts with taking responsibility for the work in front of you.
The speech’s practical ethic is to enter spaces before they are fully welcoming and to make roles larger by occupying them well.
• Key takeaways •
History is personal
Connects to equality.
Journalism can be participation
Connects to women.
Ambition needs courage
Connects to journalism.
Sisterhood compounds power
Connects to leadership.
The next chapter is yours
Connects to ambition.
Closing charge
Sherr closes by connecting individual courage to collective lift: Wellesley women are asked to lead, support one another, and continue the tradition.
Sisterhood turns ambition into public force
Network
Alumnae connection is framed as a durable source of encouragement, trust, and challenge.
Prediction
Susan B. Anthony’s future-facing confidence becomes a charge to claim political and professional possibility.
Imperative
The closing lesson is compact: remember the path, speak up, lift others, and go for it.
Sherr closes by connecting individual courage to collective lift: Wellesley women are asked to lead, support one another, and continue the tradition.
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Transcript
The previously catalogued transcript link is no longer live and is queued for re-sourcing.
Machine transcript available for archive analysis; it is unverified and may contain transcription errors. Machine transcript source ->
Provenance
BROKEN transcript link (checked 2026-06-26): humanity.org removed its /voices/commencements section. Provenance: Imported from NPR commencement archive; cross-referenced with Open Commencement DB
NPR archive last updated in 2015; destination availability has not been exhaustively rechecked | Open Commencement DB transcript; not independently verified against the original recording | Transcript URL dead (humanity.org removed its /voices/commencements section); no video fallback — needs re-sourcing
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