Anthony’s speech is historically significant and reached many people in America who eventually saw that women’s suffrage should be achieved. Throughout this essay, I will discuss how she was able to persuade her audiences, what types of arguments she used, and how powerful the speech proved to be in assisting in women’s suffrage. As I begin to explain these topics, I will examine how this led to an increased amount of attention on women’s rights and eventually led to the Nineteenth Amendment being created in 1920. Susan once said it was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the union. (Barnett 42). Although we as women have equal right to vote now and it don't feel …show more content…
She said that all people were citizens and therefore all women were citizens. She used logic in her speech to prove that she did nothing wrong by casting a vote in the presidential election of 1872 as she was a citizen. Her reasoning was not listened to by the judge that presided over her case, but through her defeat she was able to reach even more people and raise more awareness about the injustices faced by women. “The hard-won vote has lifted them out of a deep feeling of uncertainty and lack of competence in a man’s world to a point on level ground where they begin to take a hand in that world, with no apologies to be made and no quarter asked, where they are truly people” (Adams 238). The changes that Anthony was able to help make have created significant impacts on women in America. Anthony was also able to change the way rhetoric has been historically used. Men had created and used rhetoric for years to persuade others, but Anthony as a female used it to her benefit. She attempted to persuade others that her actions were constitutional and was eventually successful in her efforts. She showed others that all human beings are equal and the idea of a patriarchy should be disbanded. Anthony reconstructed gender through her efforts to make women equal to men and helped begin efforts to disband patriarchy and male control over women. She started this with her speech on women’s right to
The rights that all citizens have were ensured by the constitution and therefore they cannot be denied by a law pass by the state. Anthony assured that a law that takes away women’s rights to vote because of their gender is a “violation to the supreme law of the land” (19). If their rights were to be revoke half of the country would become superior to the other causing the rights of liberty and equality to disappear. Denying the rights of a woman based on her gender makes the country less of a democracy and more of an aristocracy (Anthony 19). The country was built upon equality for all but if women were not included than equality would never be
Anthony was not only doing her job as the head of so many different organizations but she also gave many speeches across the world to influence upon them the importance and the strength of American women can do. Without the help of Stanton, Anthony could definitely have not done everything by herself. Soon a few states such as Delaware, Missouri, and Michigan started giving women the right to vote. Anthony wanted to test this out on her own so she went to the voting booth of Rochester, New York and tried to vote. Obviously they did not allow her to vote so she was arrested and asked to pay a fine that she refused to pay.
Thousands of women have screamed at the top of their lungs, clawed at the patriarchy, and tirelessly fought for their rights as citizens of the United States of America. From the beginning of mankind, women have been labeled as inferior to men not only physically, but mentally and intellectually as well. Only in 1920 did women gain the right to voice their opinions in government elections while wealthy white men received the expected right since the creation of the United States. A pioneer in women’s suffrage, Susan B. Anthony publicly spoke out against this hypocrisy in a time when women were only seen as child bearers and household keepers. Using the United State’s very own Constitution and Declaration as ammunition, Anthony wrote countless
But why women aren’t allowed to vote? Only men could? This was because the misunderstood and believed that women were not intelligent enough to make a political decision. US government also claimed to be a democratic country, but women still aren’t allowed to vote. First, let’s talk about democracy.
Anthony, she speaks on the right to be able to vote in a presidential election. Her speech is about her right as a citizen to vote. In 1872 women did not have the right to vote, yet, she illegally voted in the presidential election. Ms. Anthony appealed the introduction to the U.S. Constitution, where she argues the start of it, “We, the people”, and not just male citizens. She verbalizes that, “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.
Anthony’s speech was well thought through and it gave off a positive connotation. She argued not as an odd one out but as a fellow citizen. Susan B. Anthony’s claim was that women’s right to vote was not a crime, but she was just exercising her rights as a citizen. She also stated that “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.” here she also used undeniable facts to prove her point.
The discrimination due to their gender outraged them and gave them the idea to start a women’s rights movement in the United States. In Seneca Falls, New York in the summer of 1848, the women’s group began. A dissimilarity is the fact that “In many history textbooks, the entire movement is summed up in one sentence: "In 1920, Congress gave women the right to vote.’" (Cooney), but in reality the movement began in 1848 with the start of Stanton and Mott’s womens group. Lucretia Mott’s women’s rights movement promoted equal economic opportunity and political, including suffrage, rights.
Many speeches were given to help them gain their right. Susan B. Anthony gave speeches so that it would help them gain the support they needed for their journey. She did this to prove to women that they were not going to be taken seriously unless they prove that they can, which was getting that right for them. In 1872 Susan started doing things by herself. She went to vote illegally for the presidential election
In 1874, Susan B. Anthony was jailed for trying to exercise the right that all men were granted but every woman was denied, the right to vote (Document 1). Twenty six years earlier, the first women’s right movement convention was held to discuss the stark disparity between the genders. A fight that would last for seventy years, the fight for the vote, was a pivotal era in the fight for viewing women as equals. This was a fight against society that has little progress for a long time and the reasoning why is clear. The struggle of women is not a unique story, and the denial of suffrage and equality was led by men because of man's fear of losing power and control in society.
1. Conditions before the 19th amendment In order to understand the following information, it is important to examine the conditions before the 19th amendment was passed. This also helps us to understand the resistance that the women’s suffrage movement faced. Prior to the amendment, women were not legally allowed to vote.
The men stopped her from getting higher education and taken away all the wages she earned. Later on, when women can finally achieved the education they deserve, rights are still being taken away from them. On 1872, Susan Anthony decided to take action upon this by giving persuasive public speeches. In her speech, she said “ We represent fifteen million people-one half the entire population... classes us as “free people”, yet we are governed without
For a very long time, the voting rights of the citizens have been a problem in the US. It started out with only men with land being able to vote, and then expanded to white men, and then to all men. However, women were never in the situation, they were disregarded and believed to not be worthy enough to have the same rights as men. They were essentially being treated as property, therefore having no rights. But, in Susan B. Anthony’s speech, she hits upon the point that women are just as righteous as men.
The purpose of this speech is to prove that women are citizens, and should be granted the right to vote. The reason for Anthony 's speech, other than her being a women 's rights activist, is that herself and a group of her followers were unfairly jailed for having voted in the 1872 presidential election (Peck and Wilmore). The judge wouldn’t let her speak on her own defense because he believed women were too incompetent to defend themselves in court (Peck and Wilmore). In this speech Anthony goes on to say that she didn’t commit a crime but simply,”...exercised [her] citizen’s rights, guaranteed to [her] and all United States citizens...”. Anthony also emphasizes that while black males were allowed to vote by the fourteenth and fifteenth
And their traditional roles included staying home, rearing children and looking after their families. Women were not granted the right to vote until August 18th 1920 (The 19th Amendment, n.d.). The 19th Amendment to the U.S Constitution granted American women the right to vote—a right known as woman suffrage. This was only less than a hundred years ago, while men have been given that right since the beginning
Susan B. Anthony, a woman who was arrested for illegally voting in the president election of 1872, in her “On Women's Right to Vote” speech, argues that women deserve to be treated as citizens of America and be able to vote and have all the rights that white males in America have. She begins by introducing her purpose, then provides evidence of how women are citizens of America, not just males by using the preamble of the Constitution, then goes on about the how this problem has became a big problem and occurs in every home in the nation, and finally states that women deserve rights because the discrimination against them is not valid because the laws and constitutions give rights to every CITIZEN in America. Anthony purpose is to make the woman of America realize that the treatment and limitations that hold them back are not correct because they are citizens and they deserve to be treated like one. She adopts a expressive and confident tone to encourage and light the hearts of American woman. To make her speech effective, she incorporates ethos in her speech to support her claims and reasons.