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| Lucy Stone (photo credit) |
May 1, 1893
In her
speech to the Congress of Women at the Chicago World’s Fair, it is difficult to
overlook the importance that Lucy Stone places on time as a factor in the Women’s
Suffrage Movement.
Stone places
importance on time as a symbol of improvement. Kairos, the importance of time
in rhetoric, is upheld throughout the address in a then-now emphasis on events
throughout history.
Three
different situations are referenced in a then-now representative of
improvements over time:
1. Women’s pursuit of education
2. Women’s right to free speech
3. Women in the workplace
Stone opens
the speech by speaking on education and the strides that women have made in
being able to become intelligent and educated.
“It
shattered the idea, everywhere pervasive as the atmosphere, that women were
incapable of education, and would be less womanly, less desirable in every way,
if they had it,” Stone said about the establishment of women’s colleges. “However
much it may have been resented, women accepted the idea of their intellectual
inequality.”
This is the
first of the arguments that over time and with persistence, opinions can be
changed. While many women had accepted that they were less worthy of an
education, others fought to provide opportunities and were successful.
Second,
Stone briefly alludes to the success of women in the anti-slavery movement. Building
ethos, she associates herself with the Grimke sisters and others who spoke out
against slavery. She suggests that while many became outcasts, it was
eventually accepted that women, too, had a right to speak their minds freely.
“The right
to education and to free speech having been gained for woman, in the long run
every other good thing was sure to be obtained,” Stone said.
This
argument outlines hardships and public criticism toward women fighting for
rights, and is the second instance of improvements being made over time.
Finally,
Stone comes to the more recent struggle faced by women being criticized for
going in to the work force. Listing success stories case by case, she argues
that women have overcome obstacles of all kinds to achieve independence and
respect in the workplace.
“In
Massachusetts, where properly qualified ‘persons’ were allowed to practice law,
the Supreme Court decided that a woman was not a ‘person,’ and a special act of
the legislature had to be passed before Miss Lelia Robinson could be admitted
to the bar,” Stone said. “But today women are lawyers.”
This marks
the third clear argument that achievements are being made in equality.
Stone’s
structure of time in this speech is important. While most of the rhetoric of
the movement uses kairos in a more intense form, this piece subtly encourages
patience. Many speakers of the movement emphasize immediacy and call for
action, but this address calls out the strides that have been made with
patience and persistence. Just at a time when the movement may be getting
frustrated with the lack of major results, Stone effectively encourages
persistence by putting great importance on the strides made over time.
Thanks to persistence, many states will receive suffrage before the 19th amendment in 1919.
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| Original image |
