This essay examines women's commencement addresses presented from 1910 to 1915 at Vassar College. These addresses are significant because they reveal the students' rhetorical education and the "available means" upon which these women drew in developing a public voice. By prompting reflection and the potential for change, the commencement…

The 5th International Conference on Language, Literature and Culture has been hosted by Mehmet Akif Ersoy University (Burdur, Turkey), in cooperation with Çankaya University (Ankara, Turkey) and Süleyman Demirel University (Isparta, Turkey). Our main aim has been to provide a forum for discussion, to facilitate integration in these fields, and to…

As an initial step toward discovering whether a separate genre of women's rhetoric exists, this paper analyzes rhetorical forms used by Mary Daly in the book "Gyn/Ecology." The paper first outlines criteria for determining whether a form has rhetorical significance and traces the historical background of the contemporary feminist…

Analyzes the keynote address to the 1976 Democratic Convention. Attributes its success to the skillful handling of the following dual and conflicting purposes: pleasing two unlike audiences; fulfilling the role expectations imposed on keynoters while avoiding triteness; and affirming Blackness and womanliness while avoiding stereotypes. (PD)

States that feminist argumentation is characterized by its commitment to analyze critically patriarchal reasoning and (re)visioning argument theory to include considerations of gender. Analyzes how/why a patriarchal line of argument privileging the male norm is produced and (re)produced in the fetal protection controversy. Uses the "Johnson…

Uses Emmeline Pankhurst's speech "The Importance of the Vote" to analyze how a speaker may utilize the discourse of the dominant culture to force revolutionary change within that culture. (MG)

The role of the agitator in society and the special characteristics of women agitators--in particular, Emma Goldman, an American anarchist from the early twentieth century--are discussed in this paper. Specific examples of the rhetoric used by Emma Goldman in her speeches (supporting anarchism, against women's suffrage, against abortion control,…

To affirm Sojourner Truth as a powerful rhetor who advanced the equality and empowerment of women, a study examined several of her speeches on women's suffrage. Although the value of using such role models as Sojourner Truth has been demonstrated in various grade levels, and in the study of history and English, the approach is too seldom employed…

The countermovement to the women's liberation movement has been varied both in origin and organization and has been slow in making its impact. Presented in this paper is an analysis of several countermovement strategies which focus upon the issues of opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion law reform, and arguments about the nature of…

While investigating materials for a new course at City College of New York dealing with the rhetoric of women activists, women who were previously actively involved in the "political scene" were asked to respond to the question, "Does the fact that you are a women affect the content, delivery, or reception of your ideas by the audiences you have…

Born in Cicero, New York, in 1826, Matilda Joslyn Gage became one of the leaders of the American women's rights movement. Her book "Woman, Church, and State," first published in 1893, is a work of feminist history and theory that anticipates many of the feminist critiques which are now familiar: social class, imperialism, sexual…

The purposes of black feminist Pauli Murray in her feminist discourse are to help individuals gain self-awareness about their personal and social histories and about their potential for action, and to direct the energies of all oppressed people toward working together against oppression. Murray's discourse is addressed to successful professional…

A course on women in public speaking, developed at the University of Cincinnati, focuses on the rhetoric of selected women who have been involved in various movements and causes in the United States in the twentieth century. Women studied include educator Mary McLeod Bethune, Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, suffragette Carrie Chapman Catt, Helen…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the role of public discourse in the soil conservation movement from 1865 to 1935; (2) Dwight D. Eisenhower's public imagery of the Soviet Union and Communist China as presented in…

Supreme Court decisions tend to take the form of either (1) an act of justification or argumentation that defends the verdict of the communicator, or (2) a construction of a new symbolic reality that influences the world view of its audience. The "Roe vs. Wade" decision is an example of the merger of these two rhetorical functions. The…