Sampling the Evolution of Women’s Rights Rhetoric

Sarah Klebba

Overview• 1892 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Solitude of Self” speech• 1969 – Shirley Chisholm, “Equal Rights for Women” speech• Historical context

– What social conditions are the same and different?• Textual analysis

– How comparable and contrasting is the rhetoric of these women’s rights advocates from different time periods?

• The speeches– Promote change in attitudes towards women’s rights– Reflect the struggles for social progress that women

experienced between 1892 and 1969

Meet Stanton• Born 1815• Father: wealthy judge• College educated• Pioneer of the women’s suffrage

movement in the 1800s• Advocated for:

• Right for women to vote• Divorce law reform• Abolition of slavery• African-American rights

Meet Chisholm• Born 1924• Parents: immigrants from Barbados• College educated• School teacher• First African American

Congresswoman– Constituents:

poor, black, uneducated• First African American woman to

run for President (1972)• 2nd wave feminist

Challenges that Women Faced – 1800s• Women relegated to domestic sphere

– Pressure to raise a family• Couldn’t

– Vote– Work outside the home– Participate in politics– Attend college– Own land

• Restricted by social conventions that expected propriety

Challenges that Women Faced – 1960s• Could

– Vote– Own land– Attend college– Work outside the home

• Restricted by social conventions– Limited opportunities for

women outside of domestic sphere

– Women are not taken seriously outside of domestic roles

Textual Analysis – Speaker Strategies• Stanton

– Instrumentality through alignment of ideals• Encourages accountability• Moral reminder

“The point I wish plainly to bring before you on this occasion is the individuality of each human soul; our Protestant idea, the right of individual conscience and judgment; our republican idea, individual citizenship.” (para. 1)

Textual Analysis – Speaker Strategies, cont.• Chisholm

– Instrumentality through shock tactics• Illustrative reasoning

“Prejudice against blacks is becoming unacceptable although it will take years to eliminate it. But it is doomed because, slowly, white America is beginning to admit that it exists. Prejudice against women is still acceptable. There is very little understanding yet of the immorality involved in double pay scales and the classification of most of the better jobs as ‘for men only.’” (para. 6)

Textual Analysis – Speaker Persona• Stanton

– First persona (adopted role) – expert• Interpretive visual metaphors

“In ignorance, poverty and vice, as a pauper or criminal, alone we starve or steal; alone we suffer the sneers and rebuffs of our fellows; alone we are hunted and hounded through dark courts and alleys, in byways and highways; alone we stand in the judgment seat; alone in the prison cell we lament our crimes and misfortunes; alone we expiate them on the gallows.

In hours like these we realize the awful solitude of individual life… Seeing, then, that life must ever be a march and a battle, that each soldier must be equipped for his own protection, it is the height of cruelty to rob the individual of a single natural right.” (para. 12)

• Chisholm– First persona (adopted role) – expert

• Statistical evidence

“More than half of the population of the United States is female. But women occupy only 2 percent of the managerial positions. They have not even reached the level of tokenism yet. No women sit on the AFL-CIO council or Supreme Court. There have been only 2 women who have held cabinet rank, and at present there are none. Only 2 women now hold ambassadorial rank in the diplomatic corps. In Congress, we are down to 1 Senator and 10 Representatives. Considering that there are about 3 1/2 million more women in the United States than men, this situation is outrageous.” (para. 7)

Textual Analysis – Speaker Persona, cont.

Textual Analysis – Speaker Persona, cont.• Stanton

– Second persona (ideal audience)• Not immediate audience (legislators) • Fellow suffragettes

“To guide our own craft, we must be captain, pilot, engineer; with chart and compass to stand at the wheel; to watch the winds and waves, and know when to take in the sail, and to read the signs in the firmament over all.” (para. 7)

“We ask for the complete development of every individual, first, for his own benefit and happiness.” (para. 9)

Textual Analysis – Speaker Persona, cont.• Chisholm

– Second persona (ideal audience)• Is immediate audience: legislators

“It is true that part of the problem has been that women have not been aggressive in demanding their rights. This was also true of the black population for many years. They submitted to oppression and even cooperated with it. Women have done the same thing. But now there is an awareness of this situation particularly among the younger segment of the population.” (para. 9)

Textual Analysis – Speaker Persona, cont.• Stanton

– Third persona (excluded audience)• African American women

“And yet, there is a solitude which each and every one of us has always carried with him, more inaccessible than the ice-cold mountains, more profound than the midnight sea; the solitude of self. Our inner being which we call ourself, no eye nor touch of man or angel has ever pierced. It is more hidden than the caves of the gnome; the sacred adytum of the oracle; the hidden chamber of Eleusinian mystery, for to it only Omniscience is permitted to enter.” (para. 31)

Textual Analysis – Modern Connotations• Stanton

– Heroic pioneer of women’s movement• Chisholm:

– Ran for President in 1972• Primarily remembered for

– But not widely– Insistence that she experienced more

prejudice in politics because she was a woman than because she was black

Conclusion• Both speeches are instrumental

– Work to promote changes in attitudes towards women’s rights

• Variety of strategies– Create moral and logical tones– Promote expertise– Convince us that change is necessary and possible– Show us who is left out

• Who do we remember?• Stanton and Chisholm supplement each other

– “Fill in the gaps”• Reflect social progress

– Exigence of second wave feminist movement to move toward gender equality

ReferencesBrown, T.L. (2008). “A new era in American politics”: Shirley Chisholm and the discourse of identity. Callaloo,

31(4), 1013- 1025. doi: 10.1353/cal.0.0258Campbell, K.K., Huxman, S.S., & Burkholder, T.R. (2015). The rhetorical act: Thinking, speaking and writing

critically (5th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.Chisholm, S. (1969, May 21). Equal rights for women. Retrieved from

library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/wlmpc_wlmms01015/. Chisholm, S. (1973). The good fight. New York, NY: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.DuBois, E.C. (Ed.) (1992). The Elizabeth Cady Stanton-Susan B. Anthony reader: Correspondence, writings,

speeches. (Rev. ed). Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press. Engbers, S.K. (2007). With great sympathy: Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s innovative appeals to emotion. Rhetoric Society

Quarterly, 37(3), 307-332. doi: 10.1080/02773940601039371Fisher, A.A. (2008) The rhetoric of women who run. The Review of Communication, 8(1), 56-59, doi:

10.1080/15358590701586519Rampton, M. (2015, October 25). Four waves of feminism. Retrieved from https://www.pacificu.edu/Rogers, D. (2016). Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902). In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved

from http://www.iep.utm.eduStanton, E.C., Anthony, S.B., & Gage, M.J. (Eds.) (1881). History of woman suffrage (Vols. 1, 4). (2nd ed.).

Rochester, NY: Susan B. Anthony. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/ Stanton, E.C. (1892, January 23). The solitude of self. Retrieved from

www.elizabethcadystantonhometown.org/speeches.html. Stanton, E.C. (1969). Elizabeth Cady Stanton: As revealed in her letters, diary and reminiscences (T. Stanton

& H.S. Blatch, Eds.) (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Arno Press. (Original work published in 1922)Stanton, E.C., & Anthony, S.B. (1997). The selected papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

(A.D. Gordon, Ed.). Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Tell, D. (2010). Stanton’s “Solitude of Self” as public confession. Communication Studies, 61(2), 172-183. doi:

10.1080/10510971003603929Winslow, B. (2014). Shirley Chisholm: Catalyst for change. (C. Berkin, Ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Contact Information

Sarah Klebba

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Klebb007@umn.edu

Questions?