Lesley Chisholm On Women's Rights

A little girl may dream of becoming President, or becoming the first woman to step on another planet, or becoming a CEO. Many of these jobs come with discrimination, especially involving women at a great height of success. Some successful women stood up to this prejudice in hopes to fight for women's rights. Shirley Chisholm,the first African American congresswoman, spoke out on the immorality faced by not only women but African American women in “Equal Rights for Women”. In addition, Serena Williams, a Wimbledon tennis champion, spoke out on unequal pay at many tennis tournaments for woman in “Wimbledon Has sent Me a Message: I’m Only a Second Class Champion”. Both speakers convey the prejudice they faced regarding women's rights by using
Chisholm has to appeal to the congress, who are all privileged white men that will not have the same view as her. Therefore, their opinions will be more difficult to change. Chisholm trusts logical information when she states, “ more than half of the United States population is female.But women occupy only 2 percent of the managerial positions… no women sit on the AFL-CIO council or supreme court…”(Chisholm 2). She states valid facts that cannot be argued, so the congress can question their beliefs. Also, Chisholm uses reason to question why women occupy such a little percentage of power in the work force when there are more females in the world. Using logic is the best way for Chisholm to persuade the congress because that shows how educated she is, and if she used emotion too much, the congress would see her as a typical emotional women. In contrast, Williams did not have a specific audience. Her audience was all of the common people specifically about women tennis professionals. Therefore, common people appeal to emotion the best. As a result, Williams recounted, “my parents taught me that dreams can come true if you put in the effort. Maybe that’s why I feel so strongly that Wimbledon's stance devalues the principle of meritocracy and diminishes the years of hard work that women on the tour have put into becoming professional tennis players”
Chisholm’s purpose was to speak on behalf of all women obtaining higher power positions. Furthermore, she wants society to give women a chance to express their views the same way men have the opportunity to express theirs. As a result, Chisholm expresses, “women do not have the same opportunities that men do…the fact is that a woman who aspires to be a chairman or the board, or Member of the House, does so for exactly the same reasons as any man. Basically, these are that she thinks she can do the job and she wants to try (Chisholm 4). By using this ethical appeal, Chisholm conveys how if a woman thinks she can do a job the same way as a man, then she should.At this point of her speech, she has already gained the trust of the audience, and she uses this appeal to depict how unfair the segregation of men and women in the work force is. This argument can have a great impact on her job as a congresswoman because she would not be judged and not face difficulties because of her gender. Not only does Chisholm fight for herself, but she fights for all other women in the same position as her. Unlike Chisholm, Williams specifically advices to the inequality in female tennis players’ salaries. Williams states that men and women can have the same stature but women get paid $30,000 less. She expresses this perplexity, “the funny thing is that Wimbledon