Truth 's Speech About Women 's Rights

“Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are humans rights. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely - and the right to be heard,” Hillary Clinton once spoke. Hillary Clinton was appointed to speak at the Women Plenary Session at the 4th United Nations World Conference in 1995. In her speech, Clinton speaks to shine a light on the unfair treatment and to educate on what rights women should have, as well as to strengthen families and societies by empowering women to take control of their own destinies. This powerful message is directed to the audience of various world leaders at the United Nations 4th World Conference on Women Plenary Session in Beijing, China. In her speech, “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights,” Hillary Clinton uses emotion to educate, persuade, and make the audience of world leaders feel something, known as pathos. She also repeats words and phrases to put an emphasis on certain injustices, which evokes the audience to want to make a change for women’s rights, making the speech effective.

In 1872, Susan B Anthony delivered her Women’s Rights Speech, shortly after being arrested for illegally casting a vote in the presidential election. Speaking with a tone of anger and disgust in the way women are being treated, she yearns for them to acquire the same rights as everyone else. Her argument is composed by using several rhetorical devices such as allusion, repetition, and analogy to “prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen’ rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.”

“Look at us! We’re just like everyone else. We’ve bought into the same ridiculous delusion; this idea that you have to settle down and resign from life.” (April Wheeler, Revolutionary Road). It has become a society norm that women are meant to serve housewives; to cook, clean, garden, and nurture children, even though they are much more capable of other things. The role of women is greatly overseen, as they are not perceived to be of their full potential, rather than as societies idealistic expectation. This is because men and those who are wealthy are unable to look past gender and accept women as of equal significance.

Throughout the nation’s history, American’s have sought to put an end to discriminatory practices and bring equality toward minority groups. For example, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech were directed at putting an end to mistreatment of African Americans. Likewise, Jane Adams and Susan B. Anthony used their authority as women’s rights activists to push for greater equality amongst the genders. While some may argue that women are lagging behind in the race to equal rights, others claim the opposing approach. In today’s society, women are achieving true equality due to a shift in the old stereotypes toward women, increasing opportunities for women to become educated, higher expectations for women in the workplace, and a stronger influence of women in government positions.

With the advancement of suffrage to equal pay, over the last century, women’s rights have progressed immensely. Through historic marches and demonstrations across the United States, women protested for their equal place in politics and social progress. Despite the fear-mongering components used in achieving these rights, women’s rights are still thoroughly debated within society today. Over the last century, incredible and unreachable goals have been fulfilled for women, such as the right to vote and a sense of equal state in the “Free World,” and can only improve in the years to come.

Throughout time women and their rights have varied among where they are living and the people that surround them. Some of the major changes with women’s rights is giving them the right to vote, reproductive rights, and the right to work for equal pay. Another thing that varies throughout time is women’s roles. For example 100 years ago the only jobs that women could have was to either be a housewife, nurse, or a teacher. Until about 1910, women didn’t really fight for their rights and what they could do. In 1910, women started to voice their opinions in society and fought for the right to vote. Though things have changed greatly today, there are still women in the world that believe in the “traditional way” and prefer to still wait on

In 1921, women were granted suffrage, but suffragists were still hungry for more. Knowing that the right to vote would not eliminate sex discrimination in America, Alice Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment to step closer to equality. After half a century of struggle, women in America are still fighting for rights that men were given to when they were born. Even though women are just as intelligent, capable and hardworking as men, if not more, they are not considered an equal under the U.S. Constitution. Can you believe that today, in the 21st century, we still degrade women and treat them as inferiors to men? Can you believe that just because you are a woman, you are less than equal to the male population? Look around you, all those boys and girls are not equal to each other under our “just” country’s laws. As it is long overdue, the Equal Rights Amendment should be ratified because there is no other amendment that talks about sex discrimination, it would eliminate any inequality in regards to sex, and it would make the judicial stance on sex discrimination cases much clearer.

The women’s right movement began in 1843 in Seneca Falls, New York, which sparked the revolution of women obtaining equal rights. In 1920, females are finally given a voice, however; African American women weren’t given suffrage until the 1970’s. One woman named Sojourner Truth stood up for all women for women’s rights with her famous speech “Ain’t I a woman?” told at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851. Truth argues that all girls’ specifically African American ladies should have the same rights as men since women can do the exact same thing stating she does the same work a man does and maybe even more since she was a slave at one point. The reason why Truth gets her message across is because she has credibility since she uses pathos by stating that 13 of her children are seized from her, ethos since she is a woman who once was a slave, logos by comparing the work an average white man does versus what the average African American woman do ,allusion by bringing Christ into the lecture stating that Christ came from God and a woman and that man has nothing to do with Christ since a woman gave birth to him, and juxtaposition by announcing that a man is contradicting himself on a statement he said. All

Through out history, Americans have fought for the rights of freedom in their country, freedoms that have been passed down through dozen’s of generations. Freedom’s such as religion, speech, press, slavery and the right to vote. Americans, though very aware of their freedoms, often take them for granted and forget the struggles that their ancestors went through to obtain them. One example of this struggle is a woman’s right to be treated and looked upon by the government as equals. This was not an easy battle to win, and it took a strong few to begin to bring the struggle that women had faced for centuries to an end.

Women have virtually the same rights as men. However, the fault needing to be recognized in today’s society is the way that women are treated. Even in simple areas, such as jobs, women are put on the back burner. A woman is able to become a CEO of a company, nonetheless, she will struggle twice as hard as a man would. Even as an employee, women are statistically paid less than men are.

    Women’s rights in the United States have come a long way in the last two centuries. Women have gone from being seen as minorities to being viewed as powerful and independent by many. Basic rights such as initiating divorce, working and earning a salary, going to college, owning property, and voting were denied to them. The list of these denied rights goes on, but women such as Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Elizabeth Blackwell worked to change this. They helped women gain the rights they know today.

In her speech at the Women’s Rights Convention, Sojourner Truth sought to show in logical and biblical terms that women were equal and deserved the right to vote just like any man. She also utilizes humor at the end of her speech by comparing the plight of man to being like between a “hawk and a buzzard”.

Women today continue to change the stereotypical expectations created from society. Although there is still in unbalanced weight of equality between men and women, they are slightly improved compared to history. In the 19th century women had limited access towards an education, property rights, and many more. Clarina Howard Nichols approaches this inequality through a speech in the Second National Woman’s Rights Convention, in 1851. Within her outspoken speech, she implements etho appeals by referring herself to “a daughter”, and “a mother” throughout the speech to relate to all stereotypes, metaphors to emphasize the limited freedom, logo appeals to highlight the wrong in the controlling laws, rhetorical questions to spur intended thoughts,

Sojourner Truth’s words in her speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” served as an anthem for women everywhere during her time. Truth struggled with not only racial injustice but also gender inequality that made her less than a person, and second to men in society. In her speech, she warned men of “the upside down” world against the power of women where “together, [women] ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!” Today, America proudly stands thinking that Truth’s uneasiness of gender inequality was put to rest. Oppression for women, however, continues to exist American literature has successfully captured and exposed shifts in attitude towards women and their roles throughout American history.

Women and men have had certain roles in society that were understood amongst them to be specified for their particular gender. Males were known to have the leading role as head of the house hold and the bread winner while the woman’s duty was to stay at home and take care of the house and children. While many people years ago deemed this way of life and practice to be the right and ethical thing to do, times have changed and so this kind of treatment towards a woman’s equality must be questioned. Even though times have changed, this mindset of a woman’s ability to be as good as a man has not completely gone away. In today’s society a woman contributes to the economy and her family as equally as that of a man. Therefore, women should share equal rights and opportunities as their gender counterparts.