Hillary Clinton Rhetorical Devices

In 1995, at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, Hillary Rodham Clinton presented a presently well recognized speech targeting every person on the planet, impartial to gender, age, or ethnicity. In her speech, Clinton encourages people all around the world to build a common ground between males and females in the hope of moving past the gender bias present all around the world. Over the course of her speech, Clinton effectively creates emotional buildup, emphasizes her main ideas, as well as generates favorable emotions within her audience by using rhetoric. Through the use of various rhetorical devices such as asyndeton or polysyndeton, repetition or anaphora, as well as the use of the Aristotelian appeal pathos, Hillary Rodham

Clinton proves that women’s rights are equally valuable when compared to human rights in her speech “Women’s Rights are Human Rights”.
Clinton repeatedly implements the use of asyndeton and polysyndeton into her speech, ultimately creating an emotional buildup within the audience. This emotional buildup raises the audience’s awareness to the endless list of people who do not recognize women’s efforts and to the necessities many women around the world are denied everyday. Through the use of asyndeton Clinton emphasizes that while women make up more than half of the world’s population, many are not even acknowledged. Likewise, women’s work is unvalued often, “by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by government leaders” (Hillary Clinton). Through her use of asyndeton, Clinton also raises awareness of the unprivileged women “who are raising children on the minimum wage, women who can’t afford health care, child care, women whose lives are threatened by violence, including violence in their own homes” (2). The rhythm that is added to successive words by the use of asyndeton not only gives the audience the impression that the list Clinton is discussing is incomplete, rather it indicates the list is quite extensive. When Clinton uses polysyndeton in her speech to speak for the women who have no chance “to go to school, or see a doctor, or own property, or have a say about the direction of their lives” (2), she identifies the rights women are denied everyday across the world. The continuous use of conjunctions, serves to overwhelm the audience and remind them of the countless disadvantages women face in today’s society. By effectively using these rhetorical devices, Clinton is able to prove that much of women’s work is unvalued and that women are denied basic necessities everyday simply due to the gender bias against them.
Furthermore, a continuous use of repetition and anaphora allows Clinton to highlight the main aspects of her speech to her audience, while at the same time increases the audience’s understanding of her speech, thus offering them the chance to act on her words.

Clinton highlights women’s potential, a potential that is slowly becoming more prevalent in our society when women are granted basic necessities by repeating “if women are...their families will flourish” (1). Additionally, Hillary uses anaphora when she identifies all the injustice women face by repeating “it is a violation of human rights when women and girls...” (4). By using repetition and anaphora, her audience has a familiarity with the phrase being repeated and as a result anticipates her next words. Ultimately, her audience is able to retain the information more effectively after listening so closely. This persuasive strategy distinguishes important messages that Clinton is trying to convey to her audience from the rest of her speech, while at the same time clears up any confusion the audience may

have.
Using pathos over the course of her speech permits Clinton to evoke emotions in the audience that are favorable to her speech.

By provoking these feelings in her audience, Clinton is able to persuade her audience that egalitarianism between genders must be established since both genders are equal. When Clinton states that women around the world are “watching their children succumb to malnutrition caused by poverty and economic deprivation” (2) or are “being denied the right to go to school by their own brothers and fathers” (2) she demonstrates the inequality between the two genders caused by an unconscious gender bias created by “patterns of categorization” (Huffington) that present women in a more fragile and incompetent manner. By pointing out that “women and [their] children make up a large majority of the world’s refugees” (3), the audience is compelled to ask “women are different then men, but why are they treated differently?” The pathos in her speech, encourages each member of the audience to reflect upon his or her daily treatment of women. Is it biased or not? Clinton’s use of pathos evokes an emotional connection between the opinions and thoughts of the speaker and the audience. Ideally, it is this connection that motivates the audience to make an effort to act on Hillary’s words and treat women as equals when compared to

men.
Throughout her speech, Clinton effectively uses the art of rhetoric such as asyndeton or polysyndeton, repetition or anaphora, and pathos, to successfully persuade her audience that women are equal to men, encouraging them to create harmony between the two. By the end of her speech it is evident Clinton believes that social organization should be overseen by both genders. Since Clinton effectively presents her arguments and persuades her audience she forces the audience to realize that in order to create this harmony, men should not use their dominant qualities to suppress women’s emotions, thoughts, ideas or rights, rather they should help women realize their full potential.