Hillary Clinton's "Women's Rights" Speech

Hillary Clinton, “Women’s Rights” Analysis

On the 5th of September, 1995, Hillary Clinton, as First Lady of the United States, performed a speech at the U.N. World Conference on Women in Beijing. Speaking about women’s rights, the purpose of the speech is to highlight, raise awareness and promote action about the problems every country faces about the liberties of women, and why it is important that they receive these freedoms. She aims to open the eyes of her audience around the world, the governments and other organisations that can help meet the goal of, in her words, “making women’s rights human rights”, as evidenced in her assertion that “It is conferences like this that compel governments and people everywhere to listen, look and face… problems” . The speech is also intended, through media coverage, for the global public, who can also take action through campaigning and the like.
Throughout the speech, Clinton refers to the multitude of problems women face around the globe, such as them “being forced in prostitution” and “being denied the right to go to school”. She then, multiple times as a theme of the speech, compels the audience by speaking about the benefits upon these problems being resolved, such as in the lines “If women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish… And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well”. In short, listed narratives, Clinton mentions meeting people who have taken a proactive stance and helped with issues facing women, such as “new mothers in Indonesia who have come together regularly in their village to discuss nutrition, family planning and baby care”. In this way, she demonstrates that issues can be righted. All of this contributes to the speech’s advocacy of women’s rights and its urge for “all governments- here and around the world- [to] accept their responsibility to protect and promote internationally recognised human rights”.
Another way that Clinton gets her point across is by her tone....