Rhetorical Analysis Of Hillary Clinton's Speech

Since 1848, women in America have fought to have the same rights and treatment as men. Years of protest have changed little to almost nothing on how many people see women fighting for justice, but as women complaining about their life. This was all to be changed in 1995 as the first lady gave a speech that would change the minds of many, and even the world. Hillary Clinton was at the U.N world conference on women when she had given her most iconic speech. Her speech was able to reach the hearts of many by making her audience feel for the millions of women who must work hard to provide for their families, using the rhetorical device anaphora and having the tone of great urgency and power to demand change. The most crucial thing to do in an persuasive speech is to ahold the audience's emotions. Clinton was able to do this perfectly as she first brings up the fact that the many works done by women are bearly recognized by people: “ We are the primary caretakers for most of the world's children and elderly. Yet much of the work we do is not valued -- not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by government leaders” (2). Considering that the majority of her audience are women, they would agree with her and make a connection with her as they would also feel like women are overlooked. If this were not enough to make the audience …show more content…
Because of all of these devices, Clinton is able to connect to the common person as well, not just the women activists. Her use of tone, anaphor useage and personal account that make all people immediately see the problem in this gender inequality. To this day, this speech had been the most influential speech given for women’s rights. No other speech in this topic is as iconic as the first lady’s as she was able to pull out strong emotions in a person like no other could and be imitated