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Rhetorical Analysis: Women's Rights Are Human Rights

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On September 5, 1995, Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a speech at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women entitled, “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights,” which addresses the wrongdoings inflicted upon women and girls while advocating on their behalf for the greater-good. Clinton firmly believed that women, as a whole, play a significant role in humanity and should receive equal treatment, just like any man. Although her speech heavily swings towards solely feminism, her argument never became imperious and she asked that the world envision the change to come if the population permitted women to partake in an ever-changing society. In her speech, Hillary Clinton attempts to make the audience realize that to be female is neither a curse …show more content…

Clinton claims that “It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire, and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small,” (5) which stirs painful and angry emotion within the audience because everyone present knows that such acts are not justified. The act of another human burning a woman to death is inhumane, an injustice to human kind, and a horrifying image to any and all witnesses. Moreover, when Clinton illustrates this image, it makes listeners envision what the experience would be like for any female. To intensify that moment, Hillary Clinton declares “It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken simply because they are born girls” (5). Because “drowned” and “suffocated” are words with extremely strong connotation, they aid Clinton in clearly embellishing her aspirations of common folk grasping the horror of what happens to women on the planet. The vision of broken spines serve as thoroughly detailed visuals to support the horror. By this time in Clinton’s argument, she already educated spectators of misdeeds, what was ethical and moral versus unethical and immoral, and put the life of women into perspective; however she did not truly address the benefits of supporting females until later

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