Left-Handed Commencement Speech Analysis on Equality

This essay analyzes Ursula K. Le Guin's commencement speech, focusing on themes of gender equality, feminism, and societal norms. It examines Le Guin's perspective on the roles of men and women, emphasizing the importance of women embracing their gender and challenging traditional expectations. The analysis highlights Le Guin's arguments about success, failure, and the exclusion of women from certain societal norms, as well as the significance of women's self-acceptance and pride in their gender. The essay references works by Cara Acred and Justin Healey to support its arguments, exploring how Le Guin's speech promotes a genderless world and the positive transformation of power dynamics. The essay concludes by underscoring the importance of women appreciating their own gender and challenging the male-dominated world.

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Student’s Name
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Left-Handed Commencement Speech Analysis
Introduction
In her address to graduates at Mill College in 1983, Le Guin portrays the female gender
as the weak side of society, and intends to emphasize on feminism and the peaceful nature of
women in comparison to men (Le Guin). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the speech’s
perspective on equality in education and other aspects of life for men and women through Le
Guin’s three main highlighted points: one’s success being interpreted as another’s failure, the
exclusion of women from certain norms of the society, and women being proud of their gender.
The Equality of Both Men and Women
As graduates facing the world, Ursula urges women to not solely think of success, but
ultimately think of the failures, disappointments, and loss they would face (Le Guin). By so
doing, they will be able to thrive, and continue to work towards being better humans capable of
meeting the challenging demands of their world (Healey).
She also talks about women being proud of their world, which is the feminine world
where everything else has been dubbed male (Le Guin). Women should similarly find a place in
this male dominated world by truly embracing their gender and calling it their own in order to
thrive, not just by competing against the men, but by living without the need to be dominant or
feel excluded from certain customs in the society (Acred).
Conclusion

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Le Guin views the world as genderless, without maleness or femaleness since she tries to
posit the consequences that are brought about by gender, such as war. She emphasis on women
being lovers of their own gender and being appreciative of their transformation of the parallelism
of power and aggression common among men, into something positive (Acred).

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Work Cited
Acred, Cara. Gender Equality? Cambridge: Independence Education Publishers, 2016.
Healey, Justin. Gender Discrimination and Inequality. Amsterdam: Spinney Press, 2014.