Essay on Women Rights To Vote

It was not until 1920 that the 19th amendment was created that gave women the right to vote. People marched, protested, and spoke about women's rights. However it took years and thousands of women and men to support it. Women like Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth spoke out about the right to vote and equal rights. While both these women went down in history books as huge advocates for women, they both went about it in different ways. Susan B. Anthony supported womens” rights by using mostly logos in her speech “On Women's Right to Vote”, while Sojourner Truth used pathos to capture her audience in her speech “Ain’t i a woman?”.

Anthony a stong and intelligant women effectivly uses logic to sway the auidience in her favor.In Anthony's speech she states, “I stand before you tonight under indictment for alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful vote”(Anothony). Anthony explains to her audience she was discourteously deprived of her rights. Stating that women cannot vote is a crime is an extremly powerful statememt, but makes the auidience question the laws of voting rights as of then. Making the auidence open to new concepts, she explains, “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed a union’’(Anthony). 

To prove women are citizens she explains, “Webster,  Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States,entitled the right to vote and hold office”(Anthony). Using the federal constitution and the dictionary definition to back her up, she stated that everyone in the nation is a citizen, and citizens could not denied the right to vote. Her entire speech was  factual, and did not want to make people feel empathy for her. She wanted to prove that women deserve rights ever since the beginning and was ready to fight for it.

Just as effectively Sojourner provided the audience with pathos and empathy to convey her reasoning. Sojourner persuades people that women should have equal rights because of what women go through. She states, “look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted,”(Sojorner) and “I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery”(Sojourner). By speaking about the hard times she's been through, Sojourner not only makes people empathise, but she also proves that as a woman she is a capable human being. Further her saying, “when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me” makes the reader feel bad for her. She also makes sure the reader knows that she got through it alone without anyone but herself. This proves she is strong and capable of rights 

Essentially, Susan B. Anthony spoke more logistically using facts and evidence, while Sojourner created empathy to make the audience understand how women felt.  While their tactics differed, their goal was the same. The both desperately wanted to make women's voices heard and respected. They pushed forward despite many roadblocks and difficulties. They did not allow others to interfere with what they believed was right as any true fighter or trailblazers would. Speaking to their audience, both women show they felt strongly about women's rights. Although their speeches and methods of conveying their beliefs were very different, they both directly impacted women's rights. Today's world is a better place because they existed.