Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History Analysis

Does acting out of the ordinary give you a better chance of making history? History professor at Harvard University, Laurel Thratcher Ulrich, who was appointed the 300th Anniversary University Professor, describes at the beginning of her article, “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History”, how she slightly made history by writing her frequently used quote "well-behaved women seldom make history". In this article she points out that news mainly focuses on law makers and law breakers. She explains how various women throughout history have done things out of the ordinary or done something simple to make history. Mae West, an actress known for making her scripts sexual, is her first example of how a woman can make history. She then goes on to talk about how the famous Rosa Parks made history by breaking the law and refusing to move to the back of the bus, therefore, igniting the Civil …show more content…
In one of her previous writings, she stated in her opening paragraph that "well-behaved women seldom make history." Her line was recognized by one of her previous students named Jill Portugal. Portugal brought Ulrich’s quote to the public’s attention by making a plain white shirt with just the quote across the front of the shirt. Portugal’s shirt went global making Ulrich famous for writing it in her article. This quote was then plastered on buttons, cups, tote bags, magnets, greeting cards, and websites. Ulrich’s small line, written twenty years before being publicly noticed, is what made her famous. But if it was not for Portugal taking interest in this quote and putting it on a shirt, the quote would not have been so famous, if famous at all. In this example Thatcher talks about, she is using ethos. Ethos is ethical appeal. She talks about how she has former students, making it obvious she teaches something. Then she talks about how her own quote from in the articles she wrote is now famously known around the