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“What is the profession of a Woman?” Rhetorical Analysis

Explore Catherine Beecher’s perspective and arguments on the importance of educating women for their societal roles in the 19th century.

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“What is the profession of a Woman?” Rhetorical Analysis

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  1. “What is the profession of a Woman?” Rhetorical Analysis Zachary Jones, Mason Corey, Nicole, Treusdell, and Chatham Craven Mrs. Pierce AP Lit 8 Sept. 2017

  2. Contextual Information Catherine Beecher • Catherine Beecher was born into a prominent, wealthy family on September 6, 1800. • Sister of author and abolitionist, Harriet Beecher Stowe. • Beecher became educated through independent study. • Co-founder of the Hartford Female Seminary; whose purpose was to train women to be teachers and mothers. • Beecher has been named a “mass of contradictions” because of the fact that Beecher promoted the intellectual capabilities of women, but remained an anti-suffragists throughout life, and believed that women could influence society by their work in the schoolhouse and the home. • Beecher puts these ideals into her own words when she states, “Woman’s great mission is to train immature, weak and ignorant creatures to obey the laws of God; the physical, the intellectual, the social and the moral.” An Address to the Christian Women of America • (PBS)

  3. Contextual Information The 1820’s • Most women in the 19th century weren’t very educated and usually didn’t have access to an education. • Typically women worked in the home and were responsible for educating their children under the idea of Republican Motherhood, although during this time there were women who began to work in factories for small wages. • Many literate and knowledgeable women of this time were of the wealthy class and/or self taught.

  4. Speaker-Persona/Audience/ Purpose • Speaker: Catherine Beecher • Audience: Trustees of the Hartford Female Seminary and to any women who could read it. • Purpose: To express that women in the society deserve a higher level of education in certain areas on the basis of teaching.

  5. Tone • The first sentence reveals the tone she has in the rest of the passage. • Her tone is very direct because she gets straight to the point in what the message of the article is. Rhetorical Questions • The most used and important rhetorical devices in the document. • Her reason behind using these devices is to make the reader see how the lack of education for women in certain areas is a bad thing. Reveal of Bias • She shows her favor of women taking the roles of teachers in their society.

  6. Logos Appeal • Beecher’s first appeal to logos is to demonstrate the lack of understanding in the two fields of knowledge that she feels are most important for women to understand, health and reason. Rhetorical Questions • She asks these questions about health because she knows it makes sense to the audience that women need to understand health since the women bare the children. Logos Appeal • The second appeal to logos shows why we need women to learn medicine and teach how to live a proper lifestyle, because, logically, over time we will be negatively impacted if we don’t know how to live healthily.

  7. Rhetorical Questions • Beecher is asking the audience, which is mostly women, if they’ve been taught correctly, which has a likely answer of no. • The purpose is to make them see how much they need to learn or make them question if what they are teaching is correct. Tone • Her tone remains direct as she has a very straight forward answer to the rhetorical questions she asked. • She remains direct in the purpose of the reasons that she provides saying that their wisdom comes from those around they because they weren’t taught correct moral behavior.

  8. logos appeal • This last section shows that Beecher believes that women should be given an opportunity at a higher education so that society as a whole can be better.She uses logic to show why women should be given the chance to learn and to teach.

  9. Sources Works Cited Blog, Jeff's APUSH. "Jeff's APUSH Blog." Republican Motherhood. N.p., 01 Jan. 1970. Web. Catharine Esther Beecher, Hartford Female Seminary , Hartford, Conn. "Suggestions Respecting Improvements in Education: Presented to the Trustees of the Hartford ... : Catharine Esther Beecher, Hartford Female Seminary , Hartford, Conn : Free Download & Streaming." Internet Archive. Packer & Butler, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. MacLean, Maggie. “Maggie MacLean.” Civil War Women, 3 Mar. 2014, www.civilwarwomenblog.com/catherine-beecher/. PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, n.d. Web. "Texas Gateway." Analyze Famous Speeches for Rhetorical Structures and Devices (English I Reading) | Texas Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web.

  10. Sources • Information on the author.http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/beecher.html • Catherine Beecher: http://www.civilwarwomenblog.com/catherine-beecher/ • Triangle : https://www.texasgateway.org/resource/analyze-famous-speeches-rhetorical-structures-and-devices-english-i-reading • Republican Motherhood image: http://pmhsapush.blogspot.com/2011/09/republican-motherhood.html • Book page images: https://archive.org/details/suggestionsresp00conngoog

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