Madam Speaker – A Visual Archive of Women’s Speeches

Only 10 percent of archived public speeches in Australia are by women, creating a skewed narrative of authority and influence. Madam Speaker was developed to correct this, not just by collecting speeches, but by reimagining how they are presented, accessed and valued. The challenge was to design a tool that felt open, inclusive, and culturally resonant, while being rigorous enough for educational and research use. It had to balance the gravity of public record with the energy of activism. This had to be achieved on a limited $50,000 self-funded budget, with no precedent for a feminist archive of this kind.

The solution is a carefully structured visual archive blending civic design, editorial clarity, and feminist symbolism. The interface uses lined layouts, oversized quotation marks, and activist-style annotations to mirror the visual rhythm of speech. Categorisation by theme, not identity, encourages broad exploration across topics like climate, justice, protest, and the arts. Designer Eileen Li hand-illustrated the hands of every woman who worked on the project, embedding care and authorship throughout. The system supports public submissions, with moderation flows to ensure accuracy and respect. Built as open-source and WCAG-compliant, Madam Speaker is designed to scale as a national and global resource.

Since launching in January 2025, Madam Speaker has reached thousands of users across Australia, including hundreds of schools, universities, media organisations and advocacy groups. Over 250 speeches have been published, with more submitted weekly by the public. The archive has become a widely used tool for teaching, speechwriting and historical research. Its categorisation model is shifting how educators present leadership. The platform also informs discussions on inclusive AI training data. Most importantly, Madam Speaker has created a culturally specific, design-led model for public memory that is accessible, powerful, and grounded in Australia’s social context, with global potential already in motion.

Civic-feminist visual language: The design draws from traditional archives, activist zines and public record architecture. Lined cards, bold typography, and annotation-like highlights give the archive a sense of both gravity and movement. Theme-based categorisation: Rather than group speeches by identity, users navigate via themes such as climate, protest, war, justice, and the arts. This encourages deeper engagement and challenges reductive sorting by gender. Symbolic illustration: Lead designer Eileen Li illustrated the hands of every woman on the project, from developers to strategists. These drawings are integrated throughout the interface as a subtle tribute to the labour of preservation. Public submission flow: Anyone can contribute a speech through a guided submission process, with checks in place to maintain accuracy and integrity. It is a community-driven archive with editorial rigour. Accessible and inclusive build: The platform meets WCAG standards, is mobile responsive, and performs well on low-bandwidth connections, ensuring equitable access for regional and remote users. Scalable infrastructure: Built on open-source technology with a modular design system, Madam Speaker is adaptable for future growth across languages, regions, and other underrepresented communities.