Rhetorical Analysis Of Hilary Clinton

Nearly 50,000 individuals attended The Fourth World Conference on Women September 5,1995 in Beijing, China to listen to Hilary Clinton 's speech advocating women 's rights issues. In her speech Clinton discusses issues women face universally, targeting individuals and governments. Hilary Clinton successfully applies ethos, pathos, and logos in this impactful address focusing attention on the unethical and impudent treatment women still encounter in recent times

"Ethos or the ethical appeal, means to convince an audience of the author’s credibility or character." According to Aristotle there are requirements to seem credible: competence, good intention and empathy. As First Lady at the time, Hilary Clinton provides her audience with every

In Aristotle’s Rhetorical, pathos are described as “some variation of emotional appeal”. Clinton uses pathos to spark feelings of rage and sympathy in the audience as she describes the cruel treatment of women around the world. She speaks about honor killings, rape, abortion, drownings and even the infanticide of baby girls. The audience is left with a sense of devastation and astonishment as she skillfully paints a visual picture for them. To expose the torment women face, Clinton uses anaphora to conjure feelings of sympathy. She deliberately repeats the same phrase in the beginning of each sentence to emphasize the violation of rights women face and make the idea prominent to the audience. She also emphasizes the “duties” that women are sometimes obligated to do within the family when she states that “families rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and care. Families rely on women for labor in the home. And increasingly, everywhere, families rely on women for income needed to raise healthy children and care for other relatives.” She is able to clarify how women are as equally, if not more important than men when it comes to the responsibilities and how their rights should be treated as

Human rights clearly include women’s rights and the fact that they are still considered as two different topics is disgraceful. In Aristotle’s Rhetorical logos are referred to as “the structure and content of text”. Clinton is able to associate women’s rights and human’s rights when she states that “If the term 'women 's rights ' were to be interchangeable with the term 'human rights ' the world community would be a better place because human rights effect the women who raise the world 's children, care for the elderly, run companies, work in hospitals, right for better education and better health care”. She wants to convince the audience to feel as if both phrases are identical to one another and uses logos to accomplish that. According to the data world bank, “approximately 50 percent of the world population is female”, and Clinton’s use of this logo allows the audiences’ perspective to change. She wants to reach every women of the world and let them know that they are many and they can defy conventionalism. “Over the past 25 years, I have worked persistently on issues relating to women, children, and families. Over the past two and a half years, I 've had the opportunity to learn more about the challenges facing women in my own country and around the world.” Having been witness to women’s efforts for many years, Hilary is able to stay relevant about her cause.

Hilary Clinton’s speech was notoriously popular because she was clear about her goal and strategically used