Whilst men and women are said to be equal under the law, studies show that, on average, for every dollar men make, women make 79 cents. How does this payment gap show equality and justice? At a national conference held in Ohio, in December 1851, a male attendee spoke out against the idea of equal rights for women. He argued that women are too weak and are physically, mentally, and morally inferior to men. His comment caught the attention of of two women, Sojourner Truth and Anna Cooper, who both responded with their own speeches on the roles of women. Although both women convey similar messages about the infelicity of discriminating against gender, race, or condition, Truth uses logic to prove that she is as worthy as men, conveys her pain …show more content…
to appeal to the empathy of the audience, and has credibility because she speaks from personal experience. By the same token, Cooper uses reasoning to list the benefits of an equal society, appeals to pathos by speaking on behalf of all humanity, and shows that she is credible by calling attention to problems that inequality poses. To begin, Truth uses reasoning to prove that she deserves to be equal to men, expresses her pain to appeal to the audience’s empathy, and orates from firsthand experience. Starting off her argument, she applies logic to refute an incorrect statement given by a black man. When he states that “women can't have as much rights as men 'cause Christ wasn't a woman,” Truth smacks him with reality by arguing, “Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him” (Truth). This shows that she is explaining equality through logic because, in this example, both God and a woman should be credited for the creation of Christ. If a woman was a key component in the creation of Christ, should she not be worthy of the same rights as men? Another appeal Truth uses in her argument is the appeal to the audience’s sympathy. She encourages the audience consider her side of the situation by articulating her pain. Responding to a claim that women are feeble, Truth shares her story, “I have borne thirteen children, and seen most sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me!” (Truth). This causes the audience to feel compassion for Truth’s past encounters, but more importantly this provokes them to change their minds about women’s rights, considering the fact that Truth, a woman, has faced all these tough occurrences. Last, but not least, Truth’s speech is credible because she had to face the inequality for herself. Truth conveys her past circumstances by describing her life as a slave. She explains how she “ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head [her]!” (Truth). This shows that her argument definitely contains credibility because she has direct information from these incidents, thus making her statement more reliable than those of the men who have not endured what she had to go through. However, Sojourner is not the only women to speak out against this man’s belief that women are inferior to men. Like Truth, Cooper also appealed to the same rhetorical strategies, but Cooper’s use of logic is applied to lists the benefits of an equal society, argues for the sake of everyone’s rights, and proves that she is reliable by clearly pinpointing the downsides of inequality.
At first, Cooper explains the advantages of equality, because “the acquirement of [women’s] ‘rights’ will mean the final triumph of all right over might, the supremacy of the moral forces of reason, and justice and love in the government of the nations of earth” (Cooper). This shows that if she can advocate for women’s rights, the rights of all people will be able to be guaranteed. Her use of reasoning appeals to the audience because they realize that she makes a good point by addressing the positive outcomes of equality. Like Sojourner Truth, Cooper’s logic is used to sway the audience into advocating for equal rights. Furthermore, Cooper racks up more attention by speaking on behalf of all people because if women achieve their rightful justice, universal equality will be ensured for “not the white woman's, nor the black woman's, nor the red woman's, but the cause of every man and woman who has writhed silently under a mighty wrong” (Cooper). This arouses the emotions in the audience because they are swayed by Cooper’s statement. If she is willing to fight for the rights of all factions, it would be fair that she earns respect and honor for her efforts. This is different from Truth’s appeal to pathos because Truth made her audience feel empathetic while Cooper encourage her audience to become supportive and unbiased. Cooper’s last effort is aimed towards confronting the flaws of inequality to prove her reliability. By using a real life example, Cooper’s argument becomes more reliable. To argue against injustice, she compares it to a chain and “If one link of the chain is broken, the chain is broken” (Cooper). This means that if all humans are not granted equality, society is disconnected and
bound to break. Her acknowledging this issue shows that she is serious about her argument and opinions. Although Cooper’s credibility is not as impressive as Truth’s firsthand experience, Cooper is still able to use her examples to prove her point. As the case is apparent, both women convey similar messages concerning equal rights through different appeals of rhetorical strategies. Sojourner Truth and Anna Cooper are both attempting to convey that all humans should be granted equality, regardless of color, sex, country, or condition. However, to convey this message, Truth uses physical examples to prove her thinking, expresses her pain to the audience, and talks about her personal experiences while Cooper lists the advantages of an equal society, voices out for the sake of humanity, and addresses the downsides of inequality.
In the Women’s Rights Convention of 1851, Truth repeatedly equates her worth to that of a man by her physical and intellectual abilities. Some of Truth’s statements at this convention include: “I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I can carry as much as any mean, and I can eat as much too”. These statements highlight the fact that women were thought to have less physical and intellectual ability than men, and as such were afforded fewer rights. By recurrently equating herself to men in all of these arenas, Truth displayed the commonalities between men and women. Furthermore, Truth’s views came from the stance of a former African American slave, who were not. In this speech, Truth paralleled herself, a black woman, to have the same abilities as a white man, thereby attempting to change her audience’s view of the current existing American capitalist patriarchal structure that put white men at the top and women of color at the bottom of the
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, along with many other women, packed into a convention on a hot July day to all fight for a common cause; their rights. At the first Women’s Rights convention, Stanton gave a heroic speech that motivated the fight for the cause to be even stronger. Through Stanton’s appliances of rhetorical devices such as emotional, logical, and ethical appeals, she was able to her win her point, change the opinions of many, and persuade people to follow her.
Sojourner finishes the initial emotional connection with her audience through her religion. By making biblical references, Sojourner’s mostly Christian audience related to her as a fellow Christian and responds more positively to her stance on equality. Through these personal anecdotes, Sojourner invites her audience, who are mostly women suffering from their own forms of discrimination, to realize the injustices of which they too are victims. Sojourner plays on the emotions of her audience in order to grab their attention and their willingness for change by sharing her own personal feelings to which they can relate. Sojourner continues her speech with rhythm and repetition, building up an energy in her voice and audience with a brief personal experience followed each time with that same rhetorical question.
After many years of battling for equality among the sexes, people today have no idea of the trails that women went through so that women of future generations could have the same privileges and treatment as men. Several generations have come since the women’s rights movement and the women of these generations have different opportunities in family life, religion, government, employment, and education that women fought for. The Women’s Rights Movement began with a small group of people that questioned why human lives, especially those of women, were unfairly confined. Many women, like Sojourner Truth and Fanny Fern, worked consciously to create a better world by bringing awareness to these inequalities. Sojourner Truth, prominent slave and advocate
The Life of Sojourner Truth I. Early Life A. Born a slave in 1797 1.  B. Sojourner Truth the most famous black female orators 1. She lectured throughout Northeast and Midwest on women's rights, religion and prison reform. 2. "Ain't I a Woman" speech May 29, 1851 II. Moving to start a new life. A. The Civil War 1. She nursed soldiers, collected food and clothing for black volunteer regiments 2. The second edition of Truths Narrative B.&nbs 2. Saying words of encouragement to black troops stationed in Detroit.
Women’s equality has made huge advancements in the United States in the past decade. One of the most influential persons to the movement has been a woman named Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ruth faced gender discrimination many times throughout her career and worked hard to ensure that discrimination based on a person’s gender would be eliminated for future generations. Ginsburg not only worked to fight for women’s equality but fought for the rights of men, as well, in order to show that equality was a human right’s issue and not just a problem that women faced. Though she faced hardships and discrimination, Ruth never stopped working and, thanks to her equality, is a much closer reality than it was fifty years ago.
Since the beginning, the United States` government, racial slavery had conquered various American identities. “Racism sprung early colonial times due the slavery riot incidence misinterpretations, leading full men, women, and children racial slavery of all different ethnic backgrounds” (Hooker 1). African-Americans held a life long work and Caribbean island shipment originating and affective progression to American colonies. “An importation of 4,000,000 Negroes were held in bondage by Southern planters” (Webstine).Advanced time went, and Northern states nurtured a rapid industrial revolution; Factory introduction, machines, and hired workers replaced any agricultural need of existing slaves. Southern states, however, maintained their original work, continuing the previous circular agricultural system. This suited the firm economic foundation of United States government. However, even continuing economic growth, some Americans still recognized moral rights. The moving disagreement era, America’s Antebellum period grew a deep internal struggle within the American society’s families. “Abolitionists, anti-racial discrimination groups, demanded an end to dehumanized labor treatment in the Southern states” (James 94). However, during this time, women discrimination was also another hot topic taking place. These movements pursued, and women joined numerous groups, and became more society perceived, standing with the thousands African-Americans, immigration workers, and women’s rights, demanding their societal rights. One particular woman advocating her own level in society, gender, race, and all, bringing her standing beliefs was Sojourner Truth. A former run away slave, Sojourner Truth, who originally contemplated no Ameri...
Sojourner Truth is an American legend. She began life as a slave and ended her life as an outgoing speaker and free woman. Sojourner led a very disadvantage life but was able to rise above her hardships. Truth was a motivational speaker even though she was not able to read or write. Sojourner Truth continues to impact lives today through her works.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is a well-recognized woman in the United States. Her great contribution as Secretary of State impacted people’s lives. One of many remarkable speeches Clinton gave was the “The Women Rights Speech” at the 4th World Conference on Women Plenary Session, where she used strong words and emotions to appeal to the audience. Even though the speech talked about women's rights, she wanted everyone, including men and children, to listen and take action. Her use of ethos, logos and pathos throughout the speech helped people understand women live in a world where they suffer discrimination, and she proposes solutions to solve the issue.
Throughout the centuries there have been many groups pursuing equal rights for themselves. These groups feel that they are excluded from privileges others possess and are subject to injustices that others are not. These groups feel they deserve better and that their presence in the world is unequal to others’. In the United States a large percentage of women started to feel they warranted equal rights to men. Margaret Fuller was among the supporters of the movement and published ground-breaking article called “The Great Lawsuit.” In “The Great Lawsuit”, Margaret Fuller tries to stop the great inequalities between men and women by describing great marriages where the husband and wife are equal, by stating how society constricts the women’s true inner genius, and by recording admirable women who stand up in an effort for equality.
Sojourner Truth’s speech entitled “Ain’t I A Woman?” became popular for its honest and raw confrontation on the injustices she experienced both as a woman and an African-American. The speech was given during a women’s rights convention held in Akron, Ohio in May 1851 and addressed many women’s rights activists present (Marable and Mullings, 66). Sojourner began her speech by pointing out the irrational expectations men have of women and contrasting them to her own experiences. She exclaims that a man in the corner claims women “needs to be helped into carriages and lifted ober ditches or to hab de best place everywhar,” yet no one extends that help to her (67). This is followed by her rhetorically asking “and ain’t I a woman?” (67) Here, Sojourner is calling out the social construction of gender difference that men use in order to subordinate women.
The anti-slavery and women’s rights movements of the mid-nineteenth century in America brought forth many voices that had hitherto been silenced by patriarchal institutions. Two such voices, those of Angelina Grimké and Sojourner Truth, became so vociferous they are still heard over 175 years later. Through written and spoken word, Grimké and Truth called for the end of oppression and the beginning of equality. By drawing on the promises listed in the Declaration of Independence, as well as scriptural references from the Bible, both Grimké and Truth established strong foundations for what they viewed as essential human rights. Although two very different women from opposing social backgrounds, Grimké and Truth were both adamant that all Americans,
Women have been treated unequally since the beginning of time. Just recently have things began to change for the better for women and the future of our society. The increase in women’s equality rights will take time, but some day women and men will be treated equally. This cannot happen until each of us is able to look at a person and just see another individual, not a male or a female, white or black, rich or poor… a person as just a person.
Before women can prove they too deserve the same rights as men, they must first put to rest the myths and beliefs of their status in this country. This myth of the female status in the United States, and in most other places in the world, has always been the same. It is the belief that women should be in the kitchen, taking care of the kids, and the house, amongst other beliefs. However, in today's society, this is considered ludicrous. For instance, in her essay, 'Ain't I a Woman?' Sojourner Truth delivers a powerful message and addresses the issues of women in the society. She argues that women should have equal rights, because they can do the same things as men. For example she says, ?That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place anywhere. Nobody helps me into no carriages, or over no mud puddles, or gives me any best place? (348). She, then, con...
Renowned British actress and activist for the feminist movement, Emma Watson, in her speech to the United Nations, “HeForShe,” argues that gender discrimination is a plague to human civilization. Watson’s purpose is to sway the audience that gender inequality has to come to an end, with the support of men and women as advocates for egalitarianism. Additionally, she enlightens the audience that the problem originated from political affairs, the economy, and social disparity. Watson creates a compassionate tone in order to convey men, specifically those who negatively perceived feminism or did not think that feminist issues affected them. Nevertheless, Watson’s speech is ineffectively persuasive due to the poor description she formulated