Rhetorical Analysis On Florence Kelley

On July 22nd 1905, Florence Kelley-a social worker-was speaking at the National American Woman Suffrage Association in hopes of gaining support for restriction on child labor and better conditions for working women. In the angry and passionate speech, Florence Kelley utilizes rhetorical appeals, repetition, and rhetorical questions in order to assert the problems with child labor to the adults and officials of America.

Florence Kelley delivered a speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The reason Florence Kelley delivered this speech was to convince the women of the asscocitation to abolish child labor.

Throughout history, individuals have fought for more justifiable working conditions. Florence Kelley, a social worker and reformer, fought to gain more adequate working conditions for the children of the United States. At this time nearly twenty percent of American workers were under the age of sixteen. Kelley delivered a speech in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905, during the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, that strived for more fair-minded hours, rather than the long, unhealthy, and tedious shifts thats children were put through overnight. Kelley utilizes both appeals to logic and appeals to emotion, in order to rally up her audience in joining her to fight for more rational, more healthy, and more just hours.

Women’s rights activists in the late 19th century objected an amendment proposing a “man’s government” in America. The amendment faced strong opposition because suffragists believed there was already excessive executive power given to men. So, these women demanded equal representation and access to the same civil liberties as men had by exposing the gender inequality they met through a series of persuasive tactics demonstrated in the article: “Manhood Suffrage.”

Florence Kelley was a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women. Throughout her speech to the Philadelphia Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she stresses the importance of changing the working conditions that are in place for children. By using child labor as her baseline, Kelley is able to talk about her main point, which is her suggestion for women’s rights with the help of repetition, strong word choice, and opposition.

She places a feeling of guilt on her audience, but calls them to action. She said, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night … spinning and weaving cotton and wool silks and ribbons for us to buy” (ln 18-22). She faults herself and her audience for sitting idly by while children are working in the middle of the night in harsh conditions. Furthermore, she continues to guilt the audience by stating that all the work these children are doing are for products that the audience will buy. In lines 59-61, Kelley attacks a bill that was removed that protected fourteen year old girls from working all night. This condemns her opposition as shameful. Kelley tries to unite her female audience against the “great evil” (ln 64-65) that is child labor. She believes that the suffrage of women will free children from the cruel nature of their working conditions.

In Florence Kelley’s speech before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905, she argues that there are millions of young children working under harsh conditions that is not acceptable in human nature. Kelley promotes an end to child labor by utilizing pathos and repetition in her speech to strengthen her claim. By stating out facts, she compares the conditions of young boys and girls with healthy men in order to emphasize about child abuse and to encourage her audience to stand with her to fight for child labor laws.

All throughout history, there is not a time in which women have not been treated with disrespect, harmed, ridiculed, or seen as less than men. Despite countless denial about their rights, to quote Senator Mitch McConnell, ‘She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.’ Although this statement was meant in response to Elizabeth Warren reading Coretta Scott King’s letter and not intended as an empowering statement, that’s exactly what it’s become. It perfectly captures how women have been throughout history and continue to be as long as there is injustice against them. In terms of equal rights for women, looking at many times in history such as the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848

Throughout the nation’s history, American’s have sought to put an end to discriminatory practices and bring equality toward minority groups. For example, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech were directed at putting an end to mistreatment of African Americans. Likewise, Jane Adams and Susan B. Anthony used their authority as women’s rights activists to push for greater equality amongst the genders. While some may argue that women are lagging behind in the race to equal rights, others claim the opposing approach. In today’s society, women are achieving true equality due to a shift in the old stereotypes toward women, increasing opportunities for women to become educated, higher expectations for women in the workplace, and a stronger influence of women in government positions.

In the mid to late 1700's, the women of the United States of America had practically no rights. When they were married, the men represented the family, and the woman could not do anything without consulting the men. Women were expected to be housewives, to raise their children, and thinking of a job in a factory was a dream that was never thought impossible. But, as years passed, women such as Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Elizabeth Blackwell began to question why they were at home all day raising the children, and why they did not have jobs like the men. This happened between the years of 1776 and 1876, when the lives and status of Northern middle-class woman was changed forever. Women began to

Imagine living in a world where women have no power or voice or control over their own lives. A world where women are property to their husbands or fathers or white privileged men, and their sole purpose in life is to have children, children that she would not even have a say in how their raised. The issue regarding women’s rights has been a worldwide dilemma since the very beginning of human life. Males have had this negligent idea cemented into their brains that they are very superior to females. In the US throughout the 19th century there were very many distinct differences between the roles of men and women in society.

The fight against sexism is not a new fight. Women have been fighting for equal rights, as well as fighting for their lives, culture, and values to be just as important as men's. On August 18, 1920, women were granted the right to vote; but this was only the beginning. From then to now, the role of women in society has significantly changed due to women standing up for their rights at protests and rallies, as well as on social media. While “The Good Wife’s Guide” focused on the promotion of the traditional gender role of women and defined appropriate emotions for women, “The Revolt of ‘Mother,’” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, represents the start of the resistance of the traditional gender role of women that we see in society today.

Generations of women fought courageously for equality for decades. The ratification of the Nineteenth amendment was vindication for so many women across the country. After having spent so many years oppressed and unable to make way for themselves, women everywhere were growing tired of being unable to own property, keep their wages and the independence that an academic education gave them. The decades that ensued brought with them various female activists, men that supported them and a division of its own within the movement. The women’s suffrage movement lasted 71 years and cam with great discourse to the lives of many women who fought for the cause.

Gender equality is not a problem facing American society today, as it did in 1851. Women in specific have won their equality by the time and have the same rights as men. Women today work, get paid equally and even more than men. Some women today are recognized, they are not seen as weak or in the need of help “over mud-puddles.”

Women have fought to expand their own political power, a power that thought much of American History has been denied to them. In this paper I will address the struggles women faced as they tried to achieve this power. I will speak about the struggles women faced in Education, Labor, and Political Power.