Page 1Page 2Page 3Page 4Page 5Janet Ryu9/29/05Paper #1SP.401Persuasive WritingThe women fighting for suffrage communicated passionately about their desires for moreequality in the public sphere. More importantly, they spoke or wrote persuasively in order toinfluence the minds of the necessary people. Many arguments were formed in favor of givingwomen more rights or equal treatment. Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, andSojourner Truth all used rhetorical strategies to argue for women’s suffrage, although they allused different tactics. Wollstonecraft and Stanton used very refined language to convince theiraudience of men, while Truth spoke on a personal level with her audience at the Women’s RightsConvention. Furthermore, Wollstonecraft’s rhetoric was to persuade her readers by catering totheir 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 thatWollstonecraft is writing to upperclass men when she writes, “Destructive, however, as richesand inherited honours are to the human character, women are more debased and cramped, ifpossible, by them, than men, because men may still, in some degree, unfold their faculties bybecoming soldiers and statesmen” (Wollstonecraft 1792:9). She writes about the potentialdownfalls of having a wife who is pampered by wealth and does not fulfill her duties ofmotherhood. While men are able to remain useful in the public sphere, women only have theprivate sphere. Unfortunately, this leaves many upperclass women without any duties becausewealth has taken care of them. Wollstonecraft continues to write about how women’s roles couldchange such that they would not simply be pampered by wealth but also be useful citizens. Shethen 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 ofslavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, morefaithful 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 theywould receive if they made women useful citizens. She also strategically appealed to upperclassmen, because it is this particular audience that had the necessary power to make changes inpolicy and given women more rights. Wollstonecraft created a dialogue that was notconfrontational but created an agreeable tone. She did not blame men for the plight of women inher document. She simply pointed out the changes that would help women, while skillfullyshowing 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 ofIndependence. The Declaration of Independence is a document that has been revered by allAmericans. 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 thisdocument was an integral part of gaining independence from the British. It motivated andinspired the revolutionaries to fight for what they believed to be their rights. In that sense, she isappealing to the American women to fight for their rights. By making their particular case ofrepression analogous to the colonists, she is urging women to fight the way the colonists didwhen they were repressed by the British. Stanton purposefully keeps much of the wordingsimilar between her document and the Declaration of Independence. For example, Stantonwrites, “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 bemade 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 toignore the women’s situation.Stanton is also writing to the men in her document. She is not only urging women tofight for their rights, but pointing out to the men that their own women are being repressed bythem 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 createdequal...” (Stanton 1848). It is identical to the Declaration of Independence except she hasinserted the word “women”. This makes a strong statement to her audience of both men andwomen that the rights that were fought for in the Revoluationary War belong to both sexes. Therest of the document continues to list out the wrongs committed by men against women, similarto the charges listed against the British.The Declaration of Sentiments has a very forceful tone, unlike Wollstonecraft’sdocument. Stanton is not reasoning out why it is to everyone’s benefit that women be givenequal treatment; she is demanding it. As she states in her document, these are “unalienablerights” that have alluded women. Unlike Wollstonecraft, Stanton does put the blame on men forthe current status of women, and demands that they change it. She is very confrontational in herdocument 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 strategythat is dissimilar from both Wollstonecraft’s and Stanton’s. Her speech uses colloquialisms andthe language is generally very simple. At the same time, she is articulate sounding and the wordsare powerful. Although her arguments are short, they make the point in a clear way, while notbeing 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 yourChrist come from? Whar did your Christ