Ethos And Pathos Argument Essay: The Rights Of Women

The rights of women have been a hot topic for decades. Human rights activists, as well as feminists all over the world, are constantly struggling to achieve equality of rights between the sexes. Various conferences have been held whereby speeches on the rights of women are given in an attempt to point out the need for gender equality. However, the efforts of the human rights activists and feminists have not yet fully achieved their objective. The activists have failed to fully persuade the people of the need for equality of human rights. The activists will need to consider the rhetorical questions of persuasion if they want to fully persuade the people. This paper will analyse the use of the rhetorical triangle; that is ethos, logos and pathos

in some of the conferences that have been held on the rights of women. The two conferences are one where Hillary Clinton gave a speech on the empowerment of women and another speech by Stanton on the rights of women.
According to Aristotle, a speaker can persuade an audience based upon how well the speaker will appeal to the audience in three different areas; their ethics (ethos), their emotions (pathos) and their logic (logos). During the fourth world conference on women held in Beijing, Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a powerful speech on the empowerment of women. Hillary mentions that effort should be focused on the lives of women and their children, their access to education, healthcare as well as jobs. According to Hillary, women should also be given a chance to enjoy basic legal and human rights to participate in the political life of their countries. Women comprise more than half the world’s population, but their voices go unheard. Several women and young children lack proper reading and writing skills due to lack of opportunity to go to school. Other women are dying out of sickness while their children succumb to malnutrition and other diseases due to lack of access to healthcare. These women are still the ones given crucial jobs such as cooking cleaning, bringing up the child and taking care of the households. The effort put in by the women, however, goes unnoticed. The main thesis of Hilary’s speech is, therefore, to give women a voice so that their work stop going unnoticed.
Stanton, on the other hand, gives a speech on the rights of women.

Stanton examines how the men have undermined rights of women. According to Stanton, the government has continuously failed to acknowledge the rights of women making it a man’s government. Stanton mentions that when a government becomes destructive towards its people, then the people have the right to refuse allegiance to that government. For this reason, women have been necessitated to demand equality in rights for which they are entitled. To prove the fact that the rights of women have been neglected, Stanton has given several examples of how men have established a direct tyranny over the women. For example, women have been denied access to representation in political issues giving the men full control of the government. Another example is that laws recognise the man as the head of the family hence a married woman is civilly dead. Stanton later points out that given the unjust laws that do not recognize women, the women should feel aggrieved and oppressed and, therefore, they should demand that their rights and privileges be

granted.
The speech by Hillary can be termed as an effective speech due to the combination of ethos, pathos and logos. Her speech was quite exceptional due to the effective use of ethos in her persuasion. Hillary establishes common grounds with the audience by stating the endeavour towards empowerment is collective and involves everyone. The ethical appeal or credibility of Hillary Clinton is quite effective since she is a well-known woman who has worked with major organizations such as WHO and the United Nations Development Fund for Women. During her speech, Hillary also mentioned that she had been working persistently on issues relating to women for the last 25 years. The fact that she has worked for so long on issues relating to women greatly boosts her ethical appeal. Hillary also uses pathos when she mentions that women are suffering due to lack of education and healthcare. The emotions of the audience are appealed to by having the audience feel pity for the oppressed women. Hillary also uses logos as well to appeal to the logic of the audience. For example, she mentions that there is no single formula in which women should lead their lives, and therefore the decisions women make need to be respected. Hillary tries to explain logically that every woman deserves a chance to achieve her maximum potential.
The speech by Stanton on the other hand also uses the rhetorical triangle to some extent. Stanton particularly favours logos since he has used it to a great extent in the speech. Reference to the Bible has been made in an attempt to explain the need for equality between the man and woman logically. Stanton mentions that since the Creator made women and men with equal capabilities and levels of consciousness then logically, they should also have equal rights so that they can equally perform their tasks. Stanton also gives several examples in his speech to further appeal to the logic that women need to enjoy equal rights as men. Pathos has also been used in the speech to appeal to the emotions of the audience. The use of pathos is particularly evident when Stanton makes reference to the creator. The audience’s feelings are appealed to since they should follow what the Creator requires of them. Denying women their rights is a direct violation of the will of the Creator. Pathos has also been used when Stanton proves that women are being oppressed and hence evoking the feeling of pity towards the women. Stanton has however not made good use of ethos hence, he does not appear as a credible character.
The strength in Hillary’s speech is the fact that she has used ethos quite efficiently and as well combined the other rhetorical tools in her speech.

The good use of ethos in Hillary’s speech makes her appear credible and worth listening to as a human rights activist. Stanton’s speech exhibits great use of logos, and that is the strength that the speech has exploited. By logically appealing to the audience, the audience gradually realizes that indeed the rights of women have been undermined. On the other hand, both speeches also have some weaknesses. The speech by Stanton, for example, fails to effectively use ethos to appeal to the audience despite the good use of logos. Lack of appropriate use of ethos makes the author lack credibility in the eyes of the audience. Hillary’s speech, on the other hand, makes good use of ethos and pathos and has ignored logos to some extent. Hillary could have made her speech much more effective if she used logos more efficiently to appeal to her

audience.
Hillary’s speech can be termed as the stronger speech between the two speeches on the rights of women. Compared to the speech by Stanton, the speech by Hillary has effectively combined all the three rhetorical tools. Hillary’s speech is outstanding and effectively passes the message on the empowerment of women. Effective use of ethos to be on the same page with the audience appeals greatly to the audience and as well makes the speech credible. On the other hand, the speech by Stanton ignores the rhetorical tool of ethos. Hence, the whole speech lacks credibility. For this reason, the speech by Hillary is stronger than that by Stanton since it is more credible due to effective use of ethos. Hillary’s speech also combines all the three rhetorical tools. An effective and strong speech should employ the use of all the three rhetorical tools to appeal to the audience in all aspects.
To sum up the above paper, both speeches have employed the rhetorical tools in an attempt to appeal to the audience. The speech by Hillary is, however, the stronger of the two since it has combined all the three rhetorical tools efficiently. Stanton’s speech lacks the proper use of ethos. Therefore, the whole speech lacks credibility towards the audience. An effective speech should combine all three rhetorical tools so as to appeal to the audiences in all aspects.