Rhetorical situation

Abby Wambach delivered her commencement address “Make Failure Your Fuel” at the 2018 Barnard College graduation ceremony in New York. The main social circumstances explored in the speech refer to gender roles in the US. In particular, she discusses the pay gap and how to break free of traditional views about women’s roles in society.

The speaker is former soccer player Abby Wambach, one of the best US players of all time. She comes across as reliable because of her honesty, and she appears knowledgeable because of her own experience of the gender pay gap and of succeeding in an area dominated by men.

The audience was formed by the women graduates of the 2018 class at Barnard college, but also women in the US more generally, and all those seeing the video of the speech online.

In terms of medium, the speech was delivered in person on the stage of Radio City Hall. As the speech was filmed and broadcast by different media outlets, it soon became available to all American audiences.

The speech explores the topic of success, which is linked to the topics of gender inequality and solidarity among women. To explore these topics, the speaker relies on her personal experience, statistics, and personal reflections, which keep the audience engaged with her address.