Persuasive Writing. The women fighting for suffrage communicated passionately about their desires for more

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1 Janet Ryu 9/29/05 Paper #1 SP.401 Persuasive Writing The women fighting for suffrage communicated passionately about their desires for more equality in the public sphere. More importantly, they spoke or wrote persuasively in order to influence the minds of the necessary people. Many arguments were formed in favor of giving women more rights or equal treatment. Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth all used rhetorical strategies to argue for women s suffrage, although they all used different tactics. Wollstonecraft and Stanton used very refined language to convince their audience of men, while Truth spoke on a personal level with her audience at the Women s Rights Convention. Furthermore, Wollstonecraft s rhetoric was to persuade her readers by catering to their desires, while Stanton s strategy was to be much more forceful and blunt. Wollstonecraft appeals to the upperclass male in A Vindication of the Rights of Women. The text itself is very dense and written for an upperclass male audience. It becomes clear that Wollstonecraft is writing to upperclass men when she writes, Destructive, however, as riches and inherited honours are to the human character, women are more debased and cramped, if possible, by them, than men, because men may still, in some degree, unfold their faculties by becoming soldiers and statesmen (Wollstonecraft 1792:9). She writes about the potential downfalls of having a wife who is pampered by wealth and does not fulfill her duties of motherhood. While men are able to remain useful in the public sphere, women only have the private sphere. Unfortunately, this leaves many upperclass women without any duties because wealth has taken care of them. Wollstonecraft continues to write about how women s roles could

2 change such that they would not simply be pampered by wealth but also be useful citizens. She then appeals to her male audience by explaining how this benefits them at the end of the chapter, Would men but generously snap our chains, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers in a word, better citizens (Wollsteonecraft 1792:33). Wollstonecraft s strategy was very clever; she made it very clear to her audience the gains they would receive if they made women useful citizens. She also strategically appealed to upperclass men, because it is this particular audience that had the necessary power to make changes in policy and given women more rights. Wollstonecraft created a dialogue that was not confrontational but created an agreeable tone. She did not blame men for the plight of women in her document. She simply pointed out the changes that would help women, while skillfully showing the benefits these changes would bring to the men as well. Stanton also used refined language in her document Declaration of Sentiments. However, her strategy was very different from Wollstonecraft s. Her audience was a broader audience, both men and women. This is evidenced by her modeling her document after the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence is a document that has been revered by all Americans. One could not easily dismiss this document and its premiere role in US history. Stanton made her own document very recognizable by modeling it after such a famous document. In addition, modeling after the Declaration of Independence is a powerful statement, because this document was an integral part of gaining independence from the British. It motivated and inspired the revolutionaries to fight for what they believed to be their rights. In that sense, she is appealing to the American women to fight for their rights. By making their particular case of repression analogous to the colonists, she is urging women to fight the way the colonists did

3 when they were repressed by the British. Stanton purposefully keeps much of the wording similar between her document and the Declaration of Independence. For example, Stanton writes, After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it (Stanton 1848). This is analogous to the colonists who felt wronged by the taxation without representation. This strategy is very powerful, because it makes it difficult to ignore the women s situation. Stanton is also writing to the men in her document. She is not only urging women to fight for their rights, but pointing out to the men that their own women are being repressed by them in a similar way the colonists were by the British. Once again, keeping the wording similar, Stanton writes, We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal... (Stanton 1848). It is identical to the Declaration of Independence except she has inserted the word women. This makes a strong statement to her audience of both men and women that the rights that were fought for in the Revoluationary War belong to both sexes. The rest of the document continues to list out the wrongs committed by men against women, similar to the charges listed against the British. The Declaration of Sentiments has a very forceful tone, unlike Wollstonecraft s document. Stanton is not reasoning out why it is to everyone s benefit that women be given equal treatment; she is demanding it. As she states in her document, these are unalienable rights that have alluded women. Unlike Wollstonecraft, Stanton does put the blame on men for the current status of women, and demands that they change it. She is very confrontational in her document and has forceful arguments as to why men should give women their rights. Sojourner Truth takes a completely different approach in her speech. She uses a strategy

4 that is dissimilar from both Wollstonecraft s and Stanton s. Her speech uses colloquialisms and the language is generally very simple. At the same time, she is articulate sounding and the words are powerful. Although her arguments are short, they make the point in a clear way, while not being confrontational like Stanton. For example, Truth says, Then that little man in black there, he says women can t have as much rights as men, cause Christ wasn t a woman! What did your Christ come from? Whar did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with him (Truth 1851). There is not much complicated logic in her statement; however, the simple logic is hard to refute and conveys the importance of women in the workings of the world. In that statement, Truth has tossed out the minister s argument for why women were inferior, by pointing out women s power as mothers. The minister used Christ as a justification for women s inferiority, and Truth skillfully used it as a tool to argue for women s rights. She does this earlier in her speech when she points out the fallacy in the minister s argument that women needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and have the place everywhar, implying that women need the help of men to survive and it is the place of women to be delicate and dependent. Truth again uses straightforward logic to call him out on this statement saying, And ain t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man. As a former slave, Truth did have to work very hard and was not in any way delicate and needing help everywhere. More importantly, she did not receive this sort of treatment. Truth is addressing an audience at the Women s Rights Convention, so she is speaking to suffragists but also men. She starts out her speech saying, I think that twist the negros of the Souf, and the women at the Norf, all a talkin bout rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. While the rest of her speech makes clear that she is for women s rights, the opening of her speech sets a very conversational tone. Even when addressing the men, she is only telling

5 them what she thinks is going to happen. Unlike Wollstonecraft, she does not try to reason with them why they should give women rights. Nor does she demand rights the way Stanton did. Her speech consists of facts that are not arguable, and she states her reasonable conclusions. Truth is also very humble in her speech, which is also different from Wollstonecraft and Stanton. She ends her speech with Obliged to you for hearing me. And now old Sojourner ain t got nothing more to say. This humility is a strategy that works for Truth, because it makes her appear very personable and not intimidating. Her non-confrontational attitude makes her point of view easy to understand and is ultimately a strategic way of gaining support for the women s movement. Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth were all very vocal and active in their pursuit of women s rights. They all used different strategies to achieve progress in this movement. Wollstonecraft used very refined language and arguments to convey to men why they benefitted from giving women more rights. She continues in her document and states specifics of how women should be more independent, but her strategy was certainly to point out how this independence of women would benefit men. Stanton also used refine language, however, she was much more confrontational. Her strategy in her document Declaration of Sentiments was to demand that women stop accepting it and fight for the rights that were theirs. Truth s speech did not use the refined language and was not confrontational. It pleaded to people s emotions and very simple thoughts. This was an effective strategy in harnessing support for the women s rights movement. All three women used their strategies effectively for persuading their different audiences to support women s rights.