Rhetorical Analysis Of The Crisis

Woodrow Wilson, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Susan B. Anthony share a common purpose in their addresses advocating women’s suffrage.Wilson’s Address to the Senate on the Nineteenth Amendment expresses the opinion he holds about the lack of control over women being able to vote; he prioritizes the use of logos to create an argument consisting of present fact and his own belief of how the rest of the world will see them as a nation if they do not ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. Catt’s The Crisis analyzes her present issue of the acknowledgement of women’s suffrage. Catt explains that through the acknowledgement of women’s suffrage, women have been given more freedom, yet not the same equality as men. Catt wants more than just exceptions to social rules, she wants people to understand that a woman is not only an imperative cog in the societal machine, but equality should never be a crisis again. Susan B. Anthony wastes no time getting to the point in On Women’s Right to Vote; she instantly begins her speech with a strong denial of allegations thrown her way and moves right in to speak about the government basing a law off the sex of a person and how the government is not treated as a democracy. Through each of these addresses Wilson, Catt, and Anthony are divided by their point of view and united by their cause, yet only Carrie Chapman Catt’s address holds the most effective reasoning.

Since the dawn of time, men have always been deemed the superior race. Men were leader and kings. They were always more educated and held better-paying jobs. In the United States, the dominant group is white protestant males. Whenever, women or young children, especially young girls, try to rise up, they have been shot done. The tides have been changing, though, with more women standing up for equality and their constitutional rights. Where would women be without outspoken women like Susan B. Anthony or Florence Kelley. Florence Kelley, who was a United States Social worker and reformer, delivered a speech before the conventions of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, that presents the argument against unjust labor laws for women and children, using rhetorical devices that drives her message home.

The Declaration of Rights of Women was a speech in which the National Woman Suffrage Association declared their freedom on July 4th, 1876 because they have no voice or representation in government. Anthony, like Stanton spoke about the “many forms of flagrant discrimination” women faced politically tries to their argument around 1776. Anthony talks about “the broad principles of human rights proclaimed in 1776, not only as abstract truths but as the corner stones of the republic” that these rights aren’t only for half of the population, but these natural rights are given to everyone, regardless of gender. Lastly, Anthony believes that disregarding these rights will only set a bad precedent for the future of the republic, setting its own demise.

The battle for suffrage was a long and slow process. Many women tried to initiate the fight for suffrage, like Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. “These were the New Suffragists: women who were better educated, more career-oriented, younger, less apt to be married and more cosmopolitan than their previous generation.” (pg 17) Eventually, in 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified; allowing women to vote, but it was not any one person or event that achieved this great feat. It was the confluence of certain necessary factors, the picketing and parades led by Alice Paul, militaristic suffrage parties and the influence of the media that caused the suffrage amendment to be passed and ratified in 1920. But most importantly, they successfully moved both

In the cartoon, it states “20,000,000 American Women Are Not Self-Governed” (Doc 7). This cartoon establishes the idea of women not taking part in the process of developing their own government. This is a necessary part to uphold as the equality of women leads to the right to vote, a key point in basic American rights. Two major women that fronted women's suffrage movement were Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Lucretia Mott initially started this movement with Elizabeth Stanton, in Seneca Falls, NY. In the letter to Elizabeth Stanton from Susan B. Anthony, she asks the question, “If only now--all the women suffrage women would work to this end of enforcing the existing constitution--supremacy of national law over state law over state law” (Doc 2). The idea of women's suffrage is not a simple task, as enforcing this law is a difficult task to continually maintain within both the national and state

Before women worked in factories, girls didn’t have many opportunities to speak in public. When they went to work in mills and factories this changed. For example, in one of the early strikes, a woman made a speech about how “it was their duty to resist all attempts at cutting down wages. This was the first time a woman had spoken public in Lowell…” (“Modern History”), and it shows how women gained more rights, as they were able to speak out about their beliefs. Not only did women give speeches, but they also “decided to strike” (“Modern History”) when their rights were being threatened.

At the beginning of this new era, the question was begged, that why equality for other genders had been pushed off so much. The Seneca Falls convention originally posted this, in the 1840s to 1850s, however, would not gain much traction until the dawn of the new suffragettes. No more would there be state-to-state campaigning, and the suffragettes would approach the issue head-on. Utilizing President Wilson’s words directly, suffragettes would be booed by the public and thrown in jail. Eventually, the atrocities and abuse hurled at them would be recognized as an important issue.

Many activists took action to fight against oppression to gain the right to vote and to gain respect from the people around them. Jane Addams was a great supporter of the Women’s Suffrage movement, performing speeches and even wrote a book, defending her argument for the topic. She wrote multiple books all through her life but, her book about Women’s Suffrage, Why Women Should Vote, was about how women should expand their responsibilities past their household and further to affecting the political world. This book was trying to convey that as times were changing women had to continue to change and spread their duty as women out to public services. She felt it their responsibility to continue to care for and look after their families to their full extent, meaning for them to take part in social reform around their neighborhoods or to fight to vote so they could influence the decisions that would make life better for following generations.

Cady Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments that explained areas where there was injustice towards women, influenced by the Declaration of Independence, in which she “connected the nascent campaign for women’s rights directly to that powerful American symbol of liberty” (Women’s History.) Stanton’s bravery beautifully depicts the attitude necessary to reach justice, her attempt to compare the writing to the Declaration of Independence allowed society to accept the idea, yet people were too naive and the idea failed. After that, the Women’s Rights Movements began. Then the first Women’s Rights Movement began where Stanton tirelessly disputed the ideas presented in the Declaration of Sentiments. The people would not agree to let women vote in elections.

Introductory Paragraph: The focus of the first movement in the 1840s-60s concentrated mainly on women’s right to vote, while the focus of the second women’s movement in the 1960s-80s targeted the reduction of discrimination in the work force, education, civil rights, reproductive rights. Historically and traditionally, women’s role had been in the home as homemakers, mothers, and non-compensated laborers. The domesticity of women appeared to be a satisfactory balance with men who were viewed as the primary wage earners. Given that most nations of the world had not given women the right to vote in 1840’s to 1860’s, the women’s movement in America was not terribly successful.

The origins of the American women’s suffrage movement are commonly dated from the public protest meeting held in Seneca Falls, New York, in July 1848. At that historic meeting, the right of women to join with men in the privileges and obligations of active, voting citizenship was the one demand that raised eyebrows among the hundred or so women and men attending. As Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the meeting’s prime organizer, remembered it, many in the audience, even including the distinguished radical Lucretia Mott, worried that the demand for political equality was either too advanced or too morally questionable to include on the launching platform of the new movement. Joined only by abolitionist and ex-slave Frederick Douglass, Stanton argued for the importance of women’s equal participation in the electoral process. In the end, the suffrage resolution passed, the only one of the meeting’s thirteen demands not to be unanimously embraced. From that point it was another three-quarters of a century to the 1920 ratification of the nineteenth

In June of 1915, the United States is fighting World War One in Europe, while women, including Anna Howard Shaw, continue to fight for suffrage rights at home. As the war rages on, women commit to their suffrage movements by giving speeches and marching in parades. On June 21, Shaw persuasively speaks to the people of New York at an equal suffrage campaign as they prepare to vote on a law concerning women’s suffrage rights. She intends to give evidence to her listeners and persuade them to support the women of New York and eventually all of the women in America, to vote. Shaw uses “The Fundamental Principles of a Republic” to prove the true purpose of the women 's suffrage movement, expose the illogical arguments of her opposition, and to convince all of her listeners (the male voters of New York) to vote for women’s right to vote through logical and rational arguments.

Women’s rights movements are in full force leading up to the war. Elizabeth Stanton dominates the Seneca Falls Convention, but falls short of reforms she is passionate about as reporters dismiss the meetings in their local papers. The National Woman's Rights Convention is meeting the years prior up to the Civil War; women did not gain the power they fight for. The times are changing and women will once again be called on to save the country from a downward spiral.

“Now We Can Begin” an essay by Crystal Eastman is a very powerful essay. Eastman makes the point know in her essay that an honest and true feminist no matter where she stands in the movement she will see to the woman’s fight with strength and courage and how it  matters in the future and as well as its difference in its approach for the workers fight for industrial freedom. Eastman state “In fighting for the right to vote most women have tried to be either non-committal or thoroughly respectable on every other subject. Now they can say what they are really after; and what they are after, in common with all the rest of the struggling world, is freedom”

     Throughout the history, women were being discriminated against by ignoring or not paying much attention to them when it comes to dealing with political issues. One in particular, was the controversial issue regarding women’s right to vote. By the end of the 1880’s feminist movements did not meet their expectations due to lack of support from women themselves. “ If by the end of the 1880’s the suffragists had reached something of a stalemate, by the end of 1890’s and early 1900’s the movement had entered a completely new phase. This was largely the result of new factors in the situation: the growth of support for women’s suffrage amongst women themselves, and the increasing importance of the labour movement in British politics” (Banks, p.121). For these women, voting was becoming more like a powerful tool to be recognized in the society and understand the importance of voting and to also participate actively in the campaign. Women suffragists finally reached their goal, in which women at the present are getting more involved in politics by running for office and being leaders of the society. One good example is present senator Hillary Clinton. This former first lady is one of the top senators in the United States today. She fought