RHETORICAL FEMINISM

THEORY
By: Krista McBride
KARLYN KOHRS CAMPBELL
 Professor at the University of Minnesota
 Her focus is on rhetorical feminism and presidential
rhetoric
 Explores the lack of artifacts in women’s discourse
 Women have been underrepresented
 Complete texts of speeches by women are largely
inaccessible
 Sees difficulty in incorporating feminist insights into
rhetoric
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 Believes the use of mainstreaming will help integrate
women
 It is more than a demand to integrate materials about and
by women, it is a challenge to rethink fundamental
assumptions.
 Catch-22 with women and the critical principles of
rhetoric
 Not adapting to the audience
 Not able to convince men
 More directed at female protestors
 Dismissed due to ineffectiveness
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 Points out that protest rhetoric is ill represented
 Helps to understand why women are targeted as protestors.
 Protestors must:
 Find a means to confront the audience
 Pay close attention to values held by the audience
 Inspire action

 Proposes using consciousness-raising

 A discursive practice that links the recovery of texts, the
recuperation, and the development of theory.
 Women’s activists began documenting what they did.
 Produced the six-volume History of woman suffrage.
KARLYN KOHRS CAMPBELL
 States that the lack of documentation be due to illiteracy.
 Preservation efforts date back to 1935 with women
writing about women in rhetoric
 1960s brought about women activists and protestors that
were documented.
 Academic studies opened up recovery efforts

 Barbra Welter and others began exploring ways for

rhetoricians to understand the context of women’s
activism
 Feminism critics give a voice to women’s work
KARLYN KOHRS CAMPBELL
 Critical work began in the 1980s, labeled some women’s
work as masterpieces of sophistication and artistry.
 Still a need to develop an alternative or expanded
rhetorical theory to accommodate to rhetorical feminism.