During the centuries before 1920, women were inferior to men; although their conditions improved slightly with time, they did not have the right to vote and influence directly on social issues that were affecting the United States of America. Feminist movements did not only demand for rights equal to men and improved labor conditions, they commanded to be heard in the matters that affected closely each and every home. Child labor was among the aspects of society they strived to improve in society with the hopes of eliminating it. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, child labor is the employment of children under a certain age in a business in inhumane conditions or violation of state or federal law. During the twentieth and twenty …show more content…
When the speaker talks about the children, she uses words such as “little girl,” “tiny children,” and “young girl.” The use of these phrases grasps the audience’s sentiments and moves them to be conscious that the workers of the industries are young children that have been stolen from their childhood and forced to work continuously so the businesses can make the most income with some of the cheapest labor. That is to say that the products bought by grown ups are manufactured by children, which produces the impression of a mother and father making their little six year old daughter or son to fabricate their clothing and luxury products. Likewise, Florence asserts that, “we shall none of us be able to free our consciences from participation in this great evil.” The use of the words “great evil” in this sentence presents that child labor is not doing any good to the country, to the society, nor to the children going through the horrible work conditions. In fact, it just affects the society since the children will not be able to have a strong education and give back to the community in a meaningful way. In other words, the word choice captures the audience’s attention and reinforces the other rhetorical …show more content…
Even though the message included gaining the support of the people to achieve a common cause of women getting the right to vote, Florence Kelley developed her argument through the community’s status dealing with child labor. The use of rhetorical strategies persuaded the audience -the Association accompanied by men and women across the country- to act in order to discontinue the practice of child labor. Additionally it conveniences the audience of the importance of the women’s point of view in the government. Other women in the National American Woman Suffrage Association exhaustingly fought in order to make their voice heard. Finally, the Congress passed a law for women’s suffrage on June 4, 1919 which was ratified on August 18, 1920. The 19th amendment granted all American women the right to vote. Since then, women have had their opinion heard and labor conditions for children have had laws that limit the minimum age for legal labor. In conclusion, Florence Kelley uses The Story of An Hour to demonstrate in a short speech full of ethical, logical and emotional phrases, along with imagery, repetition and excellent diction, one of the diverse ways children have been used to the benefit of society while dismantling their lives throughout
Work is required to earn the money to provide the necessities of life, but this duty should never be given to children. In her speech, Florence Kelley uses logos, pathos, and a shift to voting rights to build her argument of why child labor laws need to be enforced nationwide. The first way the author builds her argument is through logos, a logical appeal. Kelley utilizes an assailment of facts and statistics to lead her assertion. This is effective because of the shockingly large number of children working absurd and miserable hours.
The children make our shoes in shoe factories; they knit our stockings, out knitted underwear in the knitting factories. They spin and weave our cotton underwear in the cotton mills.” The members can say they do not support child labor, but Kelley practically retaliates by inferring that someone can say that and continue to support it by buying goods that were made by children instead of saving them from such unsafe working conditions that are not suitable for children. Those who do nothing are just as bad as the
Women’s Suffrage: did or did it not change in America? Alice Paul, a young women fighting for rights, went on a hunger strike in prison to stand up for what she believed in. Paul and other suffragists were arrested and sent to Occoquan Workhouse, in Virginia. These women were fighting for their rights to vote, to be as equal as men.
Child Labor Analysis Child Labor was one of Florence Kelley’s main topics at a speech she gave in Philadelphia during a convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Kelley talks about all the horrors children were going through and the injustices they were suffering. She talks of the conditions children working in, the hours they were going in, and all in all, how wrong child labor was. Her purpose for this was to gain support of people to petition for the end of child labor. Kelley’s appeals to Ethos, Pathos and Logos through the use of great rhetoric is what allows her to achieve her purpose.
However, in a way, she is telling the reader to think rationally and that there is no need for a case to be made - the factories are intrinsically evil. To support her article, Liebelson often cites statistics and uses numbers to aptly describe the nature of the situation. Most notably she cites the ages of the sumangali workers and statistics regarding money. She states that the girls can begin working as young as 13 and this number is repeated in different contexts multiple times to nail home the point of child labor. Making a child work all day long at such a young age, in an extremely dangerous environment to boot, paints a picture that Liebelson uses to her advantage.
On July 22nd, 1905, Florence Kelley, a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women, delivered a speech on child labor before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia. The purpose of her speech was to convince her audience that the only way to stop child labor was by allowing women the right to vote. Florence Kelley uses certain rhetorical strategies, such as pathos, diction, and an extensive use of figurative language, to appeal to her audience and accomplish her goal. Kelley’s speech is composed of a substantial amount of emotional appeals to aid her in connecting with her intended audience. In paragraph four she says, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.”
As a social worker and reformer, Florence Kelley utilizes asyndeton, juxtaposition, and rhetorical questions in her ardent speech for the attendees of the convention for the National American Women Suffrage Association to “enlist the workingmen voters” in helping with the implementation of more stringent child labor laws to encourage the protection of children, especially girls, from working in factories at such young ages. Kelley’s employment of asyndeton in the second paragraph as she states, “Men increase, women increase, youth increase in the ranks of the breadwinners…”, makes her speech more passionate and effective by speeding up its rhythm and pace. She applies this rhetorical strategy to segue into the fact that despite the increase across different demographics, none is so exponential as the growth of “girls between twelve and twenty years of age.” She describes this fact before the convention to depict the extensive hindrances this particular contingent faces.
The industrial revolution was a time of immense progress. It marked an era of technological advancements and a changing society, yet also a period smeared with unfair and unsafe working conditions. The history is filled with stories of people suffering, being injured, and even dying, all in the process of creating goods for the changing consumer culture. Thousands looked past the suffering, condoled themselves with the goods they purchased at economical prices all at the expense of the working class, a class that had no other choice than to work in the dark, dangerous factories to feed their family. While the consumer culture in this time could look past the anguish of those in the working class, progressives could not.
“Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time” (Grace Abbott). The issue of child labor has been around for centuries. Its standing in our world has been irrevocably stained in our history and unfortunately, our present. Many great minds have assessed this horrific issue and its effect on our homes, societies, and ultimately, our world.
Children from as young as the age of 6 began working in factories, the beginning of their exploitation, to meet demands of items and financial need for families. In Florence Kelley’s speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia 1905, Kelley addresses the overwhelming problem of child labor in the United States. The imagery, appeal to logic, and the diction Kelley uses in her speech emphasizes the exploitation of children in the child labor crisis in twentieth century America. Kelley’s use of imagery assists her audience in visualizing the inhumanity of the practice.
About one hundred thousand workers from six hundred different mills were on strike there. The strikers wanted their work cut from sixty to fifty-five hours. About a sixth of the strikers were children under sixteen.” ( 5, Josephson). As a result, she gathered a large group of mill children and their parents, shaming the mill owners of their actions.
The Roaring Twenties, characterized as a progressive era toward changes and advances, it was a start for freedom and independence for women. Women gained political power by gaining the right to vote. They changed their traditional way to be, way to act and dress to gain respect, and the liberty of independence. Society had different ways of ideals and the ways women were willing to do were disapproved of, and it was wrong for lots of different people, including women from the older generation. In the 1920’s women went through a lot of changes that made them a free spirit, changes that made them what they are now and having the liberty of being independent.
Conditions were hazardous and grueling. They worked long hours for little pay. Most of them could not read or write and they could not attend school because they needed to work. They suffered from malnutrition and exhaustion. They were innocent children that were locked up in factories, like they had committed a crime.
Finally in 1920, the nineteenth amendment was presented and allowed the women in the United States the right to vote (Kirk, G. & Okazawa-Rey, M. (2013). When thinking about how the women felt about not be able to speak up with voting situations is horrible. We are truly blessed that there were women who spoke their mind and changed the women’s lives for the
Child labor was a great concern in the Industrial revolution but very few people did something to stop it. Women and Children were forced to work more than 10 hours a day with only forty minutes to have lunch. Elizabeth Bentley once said that they didn’t have any time to have breakfast or drink anything during the day. They worked standing up and if they didn’t do their work on time they were strapped (whipped). Children were treating like they were not important, like they didn’t deserve a better life.