Hillary Clinton Speech Analysis

1096 Words3 Pages

“Let it be that human rights are women’s right and women’s right are human rights once and for all.” These were the words that changed the course for women’s rights. On September 5, 1995, everyone at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing heard these words uttered by- then First Lady- Hillary Clinton. The conference was, “the biggest United Nations conference ever held,” (Otto), and it was, “a call for equality… by half the world’s population… a challenge to change the course of social and economic development in a direction that places people- and women- firmly at the centre of analysis and objectives,” (Moghadam). The speech that Clinton gave completed the challenge and more, by persuading everyone, in the audience and all over the world, with anaphoras, strong emotional diction and the three persuasive appeals, she altered the history of women’s rights for the better.
She starts her roughly three thousand word speech with a subtle ethical appeal, thanking the Secretary General for inviting her. This made everyone, who may have not been listening before, realize that she was worth listening to. Although she was speaking at a conference about women, for women and full of women, there were, “26,000 [people]… including roughly 1,500 men,” (Freeman Real Story) who were not a part of the delegates, representatives, NGOs, members of the press and staff from UN agencies. In total, there were over fifty thousand people at the conference (Freeman Real Story) and she had to persuade every one of them that the fight for women’s rights was far from over.
Seemingly from the very start of Hillary Clinton’s political career, she was disliked by men and women. People, “characterized [her] as a “bossy, humorless, radical...

... middle of paper ...

... ease onto her last words, her battle cry of sorts, “Let this conference be our- and the world’s- call to action. Let us heed that call so we can create a world in which every woman is [respected], every boy and girl is loved… equally, and every family has [a] strong and stable future.”
Hillary Clinton restored the world’s focus on improving women’s rights with her exceptionally anaphoras, emotional diction, and the three persuasive appeals. Although there have been many occurrences where her words helped save women from cruelty, i.e. the burning for dowries, rape for war and mutilation, five years after the conference she released a statement that, “the Beijing conference was “one of the most moving and meaningful experiences in my life.” But, “our work is far from done”,” (Freeman UN Reviews). To this day, her powerful words still ring clearly, “The time is now.”

Open Document