A Rhetorical Analysis Of Chisholm's Speech

Not only does repetition play a major role in Chisholm’s speech, but her dispersement of anaphoras indeed calls attention to her main point. Anaphoras allow her to emphasize her frustration and put forth the notion of the severity of discrimination and differences men and women had to endure during that time. An example of this is right in the beginning of her speech where she states: “It provides a legal basis for attack on the most subtle, most pervasive, and most institutionalized form of prejudice that exists,” where she explains how the Constitution was based on the equality of the American people, including between men and women. This quotation fulfills her point by expressing these prejudices in the superlative form. Because she placed

an emphasis on “most” using an anaphora, it supplies her main argument that women are subordinately treated and that must change. With her use of the anaphora, Chisholm called attention to the claim of her topic sentence, which claims equality for both men and women as the basis of our Constitution, by inserting the rhetorical device right away.
Although not abundant in her text, Shirley Chisholm’s use of anthypophora was extremely effective since it was able to shut down her opposers almost instantly. With her experience as both a woman and an African-American, people have always asked her ridiculous and, at times, offensive questions, which she has prepared for. One of her questions is located halfway through her speech stating, “What would be the economic effects of the equal rights amendment?” and she proceeds to answer this within the next few paragraphs. By answering almost instantly, it shuts down her opposers and leaves them without a chance to refute her statement. It is an effective strategy since she states the main concern of her opposers and unlike in politics today, she does not swerve around the question. Since this is also in a speech, it eliminates the back and forth quarrel from the audience and lets Chisholm expand on her point. She also provides strong counter arguments with reliable sources to help give support to her opposers. She answers this in an almost list-like way and gets straight to the point, even expanding on the benefits it would bring to society and economically. Anthypophora in Chisholm’s speech not only acts as the icing on a cake, but constructs her words in a unique way that will make the speech more memorable by expanding on anticipated questions and giving more reason to support her side.
Delivering logos and pathos also serves a big role in Chisholm’s speech, allowing her to reach the hearts of her audience and supporting her cause with the use of statistics and heartwarming inputs.

Using these appeals strengthens her argument, but Chisholm’s use of both in successive sentences adds even more value to the speech. While she makes many strong statements, she also supplies numbers, and the effect of her speech is fully seen mid-speech when she states: “Since October 1966, 246,000 young men who did not meet the normal mental or physical requirements have been given opportunities for training and correcting physical problems.” (“For the Equal Rights Amendment”). Showing her credibility through numbers, she is able to provide an ethical appeal to her audience as well since many of her statistics revolve around the unfairness of the inequality. The statement following said: “This opportunity is not open to their sisters,” which immediately brings a slight shock to the audience that women were not held at the same standard as men for even correcting a disability, therefore appealing to her pathos. Chisholm’s most impactful of the rhetorical appeals was her use of pathos, and since she mentioned many emotional situations, including statements such as: “restrictions...are commonly imposed on minorities, on women,” and “longer prison sentences for women then men,”which invoke a feeling of suppression and anger to get the audience personally connected to her words. This

was able to make her speech was able to resonate in the minds of her audience better. With these appeals resonating in her text and playing off of one another, she makes her speech more successful in the end.
The impact of her speech was nearly immediate: the ERA was reintroduced into Congress after almost 50 years of inactivity.

The afterward of this led her to make an example of herself for other women to look up to. Therefore, Shirley Chisholm delivered this speech a couple years before she decided to run for president as the first black woman (“Shirley Chisholm”). This dramatically changed the people’s image of her and now put her in the spotlight of a powerful woman. The day of her speech, “the House of Representatives passed the ERA on a vote of 352 to 15” (Constitutional Amendments). Shirley continued to fight for the ERA and even got “supporters [to] f[i]ght for a three year extension on the ratification date,” making it the biggest turnout in about half a century (American Justice). Although she continuously worked for the amendment to pass, she lacked the needed states for ratification, but her act of fighting for the ERA anyway incited a new wave of

feminism.
Still fighting for what she believed was important, Chisholm persuaded both the 50 states to ratify the ERA and the people of America to make a change in their lives for equality. She continued to make speeches on equality to better the lives of women even when others discouraged her from doing so (Plowden 51). Twelve years after the speech, the ERA was further analysed for the possibility of future ratification because of Chisholm’s efforts, “but failed due to lack of votes in the House to pass” (American Justice). Nevertheless, she was as motivated as ever: she continued fighting for women’s liberation because “prejudice against women is still acceptable because it is invisible” (Chisholm 164). Even with the ERA failing, Chisholm decided still not to give up and continued to preach her feminist ideals by teaching at Mt. Holyoke College for women. She taught about the impact of women in history, and how women’s politics and general studies, which led to another revolution for women’s liberation (“Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm”). With her never-ending effort to improve equality, Chisholm made her mark in women’s movement.