Analysis

Our analysis of Hillary Clinton’s speech “Women's Rights are Human Rights” is based on the rhetorical pentagram model. Here you can read a short presentation of the analysis.

In the next pages, we discuss the topic of the speech - women’s rights violation and discrimination against women. We will also look at how Clinton argues that women’s rights issues should be treated in the same way as human rights issues.

We pay close attention to the speaker and her background at the time as a family lawyer and the US First Lady, and the way she uses these aspects to construct a credible image of her experience with women’s issues.

We move on to discuss the audience, formed by UN delegates but also the general international public through the broadcasting and reporting of the speech. We will also look at the way the speaker targets specific groups, including sceptics, women, and national governments.

We present the circumstances of the speech, focusing on the context of the UN conference on women and issues related to China where the speech was presented.

We explore the language of the speaker—including tone, choice of words, and rhetorical devices— to see how Clinton uses it to achieve her intention of persuading the audience to take actions to ensure that women’s rights are respected internationally.

Find the full analysis in what follows!

Further help

Do you want additional help with analysis of speeches? See our guide to speech analysis: