Oprah Winfrey served as a keynote speaker at the 10th annual Women in the World Summit, which is a three-day event of panel discussions aiming at human rights violations, climate change, social media misinformation, reproductive rights, and how to solve those problems, as women. During her speech, the tv mogul shared a bit of wisdom, “Save yourself, and then offer what you know to save your family, and then your community, and then your world.”
Oprah opened with a short piece from Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech, then added, “It is your job to make yourself whole. Not perfect, but whole and full. Your world work in life, your real work, is to fill yourself till your cup runneth over so that you’re never grasping and needy, clamoring and insecure, but if you can live your life assured in your worthiness and your right to be here and to become the best version of yourself as a woman being.”
She preached that women have been helping the world since the beginning of time.
“We women people, we are used to saving other folks. We’ve been doing it a very long time, and we need to first and foremost honor the sacred time of saving ourselves because that is where our greatest power lies… and when we fulfill the task of actually making ourselves whole, we’re set up to fully express what we know to now negotiate, differentiate, placate, facilitate, demonstrate, delegate, and on a really good day, it helps us carve our 20 minutes to meditate.”
The main question of the summit was, “Can women save the world?” Oprah said, “We are there for our aging parents, we are there for divorcing friends and scary teenagers, we’re good listeners, and we are badasses, and above all, we show up. Can women save the world? I say we’ve been doing exactly that.”
