Hillary Clinton Women's Rights

Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered her speech “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” September 5, 1995 while speaking at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China with the intent to educate and spread awareness in regards to the rights and treatment of women around the world, while encouraging women to take initiative and highlight the potential women have if they are given the opportunity. The underlying message Clinton delivers in her speech stresses that the goal of equal treatment and women’s rights “cannot be fully achieved unless all governments...accept their responsibility to protect and promote internationally recognized human rights” and that it is not possible unless “women must...participate fully in the social

To prove she has made women’s rights a priority in her life, she emphasizes that “Over the past twenty-five years, [she has] worked persistently on issues relating to women, children, and families” (Clinton). Establishing credibility, Clinton shares numerous stories of her travels around the world meeting women with all different backstories- focusing on where and in what conditions the women were in- and informing her audience of her experience and prior efforts dealing with the rights of women. Participating in events such as the World Health Organization forum and pursuing events such as the United Nations Development Fund for Women convinces people that she commits herself to the cause and issue she fights

When pathos is used, Clinton vividly describes the treatment of girls and women. Clinton uses the examples of “babies [being] denied of food...drowned...suffocated...or [having their] spines broken” or “women [being] doused with gasoline, set on fire, and burned to death” all for one common reason: “because they were born girls”. Clinton does not put herself or any women above another because of their hardships or life challenges, but makes it an issue for all women across the board, making it a “we” problem. She address the working situations and women in the work forces as a blanket address of “we come together in fields and factories” (Clinton) stressing the fact women’s rights and treatment is not an issue for only those that live in third world countries or those who work for little to nothing. Clinton makes it clear that she “[wants] to speak for those women in [her] own country, women who are raising children on minimum wage, women who can’t afford health care or child care, women whose lives are threatened by violence, including violence from their own homes” and “for mothers who are fighting for good schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air, and clean airwaves…” drawing attention to the fact she has the opportunity to do so and takes advantage of it