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Rhetorical Analysis Of Carrie Chapman Catt's Suffrage Speech

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Carrie Chapman Catt was one of the most profound leaders in the fight for women’s suffrage. Catt achieved the 19th Amendment in the early 1900s, this amendment allowed women to be involved in political elections including voting. To ensure the right for women to vote could be in full effect, she addressed the all-male Congress in a speech. In this speech, Catt uses emotional (pathos) and logical (logos) appeals to her audience, along with various examples of syntax (repetition) in the structure of her sentences. She also informs her audience of the sequential events that have led up to the fight for women’s suffrage. Catt explains the history of America’s democracy, political stand and goals through events and quotations of certain presidents. She states, “Abraham Lincoln welded those two axioms into a new one: ‘Ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.’”, she states another quote, “Fifty years more passed and the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, in a mighty crisis of the nation, …show more content…

She additionally incorporates repetition in her sentences to support her purpose, by asking, “Do you realize that when you ask women to take their cause to state referendum you compel them to do this: that you drive women of education, refinement, achievement, to beg men who cannot read for their political freedom?”, she asks another question, “Do you realize that such anomalies as a college president asking her janitor to give her a vote are overstraining patience and driving women to desperation?” Catt urges her audience to listen to her through these repetitive questions and make the Congress feel that a change must be made, she uses emotional diction to support her purpose of giving this message that women do not need to feel desperate for their

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She was a dark-horse candidate, one who sole purpose was to grant women suffrage successfully. Mrs. Catt believed that the best way to approach the women rights situation was to go state to state and ratify the amendment. Which was her purpose for the ‘winning plan’

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Before August 18th, 1920, only men could vote in the United States. One person that helped to right this wrong was Carrie Chapman Catt. In Carrie Chapman Catt’s address to Congress on women’s suffrage, she uses logos, pathos, and other rhetorical devices to convince Congress to give women more rights. One tool that helps make this speech as effective as it is is logos. She demonstrates logos when introducing the second reason as to why women’s suffrage is inevitable.

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Her use of rhetorical questions such as "Is it not time that we had the same rights as men?" was effective in engaging the audience and making them question their own beliefs. Anthony's speech was also logically structured, with a clear argument that women's contributions to society, such as raising children, made it imperative for them to have a say in political decisions.

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To urge the arrogant politicians to pass the women’s suffrage amendment to the Constitution, Chapman Catt not only induces fear and culpability in them, but the language she employs also establishes herself as a credible individual by aligning with respected figures and emulating the politicians’ style of speech. Chapman Catt establishes herself as a credible individual by aligning with respected figures. Premising from the beginning of her address, she alludes to the cause of the American revolution, and the government’s power coming “from the consent” of the people as the two “fundamental principles” that “anchor” the liberty of the United States (39-40). This aligns her with the American ideals that founded the country. Building on that premise, she continues by

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Yes, she truly wishes to see these awful conditions changed, wants to see reform in the nation, but that’s not her entire goal. Instead, she begins to conclude her speech by offering a solution to these problems; allow women to vote. Becoming more intense with her tone and diction, Kelley begins to provoke thought in her audience, asking them that “if the mothers and teachers” in all of these states could vote, would these harsh laws exist? If women could take to the ballot, would children have to slave away inside of factories all night while their mothers lay safe in bed? She tells her audience that until women can vote, none of them can be free of conscious from what is happening, that nothing will ultimately change.

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In a pure democracy, the power lies in the people as well, but is exercised directly by the citizens rather than by their elected representatives. After breaking free from British rule, America’s founders sought to stray away from government that did not value the voices of the people it governed. When working towards creating a new government, the founder’s beliefs were rooted in “republicanism,

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The Ideal of Equality was altered progressively by Carrie Chapman Catt’s involvement in the Women’s Rights movement. She founded the League of Women’s voters and the International National Woman Suffrage Alliance, was the president of the National American Women Suffrage Association, and she ultimately helped get women the right to vote in 1920. Carrie Chapman Catt was born on January 9th, in Wisconsin. Her family moved to Iowa when she was seven. As a teenager, Catt realized that her mother did not have the same voting rights as her father did.

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Carrie Chapman Catt uses a lot of ideas about democracy in her speech that was logical. Catt uses logic to appeal to her audience from the first reason of women suffrage inevitability to the end of the speech. Catt uses the Declaration of independence, which turn out to be the basic rule of government (Catt, 1917). This is because it states that all men (women) are created equal and Catt used that along with the quote from Woodrow Wilson that states “we are fighting for the things which we have always carried nearest to our hearts: for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government” (Catt, 1917). The logic in Wilson’s quote as it relates to women’s suffrage is if democracy is the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government than why do women not allow to vote because they too submit to authority as men do.

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They often appealed to the idea that to be better mothers and wives theyneeded the vote, in order to protect their families. In this text, there is also an appeal to ethos,citing the Constitution in outlining their rights, as they are people. " Votes for Women! TheWoman's Reason" reflect the importance of writing in spreading messages and effective writingsthat appealed to logic and emotion aimed to convince America of the suffrage movement.

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At the start of her speech, Jill Bolte Taylor, critically displays pathos with the use of her brother's mental disorder. Standing in front of a crowd of fascinated people, she uses pathos to capture their compassion. At the start of her speech, she engages with the audience by saying, "I grew up to study the brain because I have a brother who has been diagnosed with a brain disorder, schizophrenia." (Taylor). This use of pathos was highly effective because she captures their attention making them feel sincere and sympathetic towards her.

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How they couldn’t vote and how they didn’t have the rights that white men had. But throughout the whole speech, she is trying to convince people to start a big ordeal on how white men are not the only ones able to vote. In conclusion, the author is speaking to her fellow women and the to the wrong white men of the United States. Her purpose of making this speech is that woman have just as much right to vote as white men do.

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Woman Suffrage Women's right activist, Carrie Catt, in her speech, “Address to Congress on Women’s Suffrage”, explains how woman suffrage in inevitable. Catt’s purpose is to convince Congress that it is time for woman suffrage. She adopts a confident tone , uses direct quotations, and appeals to logos in order to convince Congress that it is time for woman suffrage. A confident tone is adopted by Catt throughout her entire speech to congress. Catt opens with “Woman suffrage is inevitable.”

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Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered her speech “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” September 5, 1995 while speaking at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China with the intent to educate and spread awareness in regards to the rights and treatment of women around the world, while encouraging women to take initiative and highlight the potential women have if presented with the opportunity of equality. Early in Clinton’s speech, she uses the power of ethos to establish her credibility and continues to build upon it throughout, bringing attention to the fact she has had years of experience fighting for change among people of all kinds. Clinton convinces listeners that she has made women’s rights a priority in her life

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For a very long time, the voting rights of the citizens have been a problem in the US. It started out with only men with land being able to vote, and then expanded to white men, and then to all men. However, women were never in the situation, they were disregarded and believed to not be worthy enough to have the same rights as men. They were essentially being treated as property, therefore having no rights. But, in Susan B. Anthony’s speech, she hits upon the point that women are just as righteous as men.

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Carrie Chapman Catt, an effective advocate for women 's rights, utilizes Ethos and Logos effective to craft a persuasive argument for the suffrage of women. In Catt’s speech “Address to Congress on Women’s Rights,” she utilizes Logos to gain support for women’s rights. She creates a compelling argument through her concession, repetition, and historical facts to back up what she says. Catt uses concession effectively in her well planned speech. This is evidenced in the line “Gentlemen, we hereby petition you, our only designated representatives, to ...(fight for women’s suffrage)... and to use your influence to secure its ratification in your own state, in order that the women of our nation may be endowed with political freedom before the next

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