A Feminine Approach to Public Speaking
by Tabby Biddle
For many women, the idea of public speaking brings up a familiar mix of longing and self-doubt. A desire to share what they know, paired with a quiet voice that asks, Who am I to speak? Am I qualified enough? Interesting enough? Ready enough?
I want to say this clearly, right from the start: if you have ever felt that way, there is nothing wrong with you.
Much of what we’ve been taught about public speaking was not designed with women in mind. Traditional approaches often emphasize polish, a loud authority, and a narrow definition of confidence — qualities that have historically been shaped by male norms of leadership and expression.
While those approaches work for some, many women feel disconnected from themselves when they try to fit into that mold. I see this constantly in the women who come to me — ambitious, capable women who begin doubting their voice, second-guessing their instincts, or feeling like an imposter the moment they imagine stepping onto a stage.
A feminine approach to public speaking offers something different.
A feminine approach to public speaking begins with remembering rather than striving.
At its core, this approach is not rigid. It is not about being the “perfect” speaker or delivering a flawless performance. It is about being true to who you are. It honors emotional intelligence, lived experience, intuition, and embodiment. It welcomes warmth, relationality, and authenticity — not as weaknesses, but as sources of power.
When a woman speaks from this place, she is not trying to impress. She is not trying to prove herself. She is there in service to her audience.
That, to me, is the cornerstone of a feminine approach to public speaking.
Audiences don’t want perfection. They want truth.
As a speaker, you are not there to show off. You are there to offer something meaningful — a perspective, a truth, a story, a way of seeing the world that might help someone’s life become easier, clearer, or more expansive.
Audiences don’t actually want perfection. They want truth. They want to feel you. They want to recognize themselves in what you’re sharing. And that only happens when you allow yourself to be real.
So many women hold themselves back from speaking because they’ve internalized the belief that they are somehow “less than” — less qualified, less authoritative, less worthy of being heard.
That message didn’t come from nowhere. It has been handed down through generations within a patriarchal order that has consistently undervalued women’s voices, perspectives, and leadership.
I have seen it happen time and time again that when women are left swirling in imposter syndrome and self-doubt, they rarely take the first step toward the stage. And when they do, they often feel disconnected from their power.
My work as a women’s public speaking coach is rooted in helping women remember the truth of who they are — to feel grounded in their feminine authority, to trust their voice and their wisdom, and to trust the vision they carry for the future, even when that vision has not yet been validated by the world around them.
A feminine approach to public speaking supports women in coming home to their bodies, where confidence lives. It helps them feel safe being visible. It allows them to lead in a way that is relational — with their audience, with themselves, and with the deeper purpose guiding their message. It affirms that emotional expression, intuition, and authenticity are not liabilities, but strengths.
This approach also invites women to consider the legacy they are creating.
We don’t talk about feminine legacy nearly enough. I often invite the women I work with to consider not just the talk they are giving now, but the legacy they are shaping by choosing to be visible.
When women of all ages stand up and speak — in boardrooms, classrooms, conferences, and community spaces — they are not only sharing a message in the moment. They are modeling possibility for the next generation. Girls and young women who see women speaking and leading begin to internalize a powerful truth: this is for me, too.
When women bring their lived experience into influential spaces, they expand what leadership looks like.
When women bring their perspectives, values, and lived experiences into influential spaces, they shape conversations. They influence decisions. They expand what leadership looks like.
This is how cultural change happens — not just through policy or power, but through voice.
There is an archetype that lives quietly beneath this work: the queen. Not the queen who rules through dominance or power-over, but the queen archetype who embodies dignity, sovereignty, and self-authority. The queen who is deeply in service to her people. In public speaking terms, that means her audience.
Whether or not we name this archetype explicitly, she is always present in my work. I am always aiming to help a woman remember her sovereignty — her right to take up space, to speak with clarity and conviction, and to trust that what she has to say matters.
This is the feminine legacy I care about.
If you feel drawn to public speaking but have been held back by self-doubt or the sense that you don’t fit the traditional mold, I want you to know: there is another way. One that honors your femininity, your humanity, and your wisdom. One that invites you to lead not by becoming someone else, but by becoming more fully yourself.
That is the invitation of a feminine approach to public speaking.
Tabby Biddle is a Women’s Thought Leadership Coach & Public Speaking Mentor devoted to helping women speak from their lived wisdom and feminine authority. For over 15 years, she has supported women to step into visibility as speakers and leaders, centering intuition, service and legacy as pathways to cultural change.