Lillian Guzman

Ms Alcaraz

Eng P6

22 February 2018

Non-Fiction Response Analysis

“​Speech: ‘Paid parental leave is about creating freedom to define roles’--UN Women Goodwill

Ambassador Anne Hathaway”

1. Anne Hathaway gave a speech to the UN to help promote gender equality and to

advocate for paid parental leave.

2. I can connect this to my AP US History textbook ‘By The People’ because it speaks

about important women in history who advocated for equal rights.

3. The author’s purpose is to inform and persuade the UN to provide gender-neutral, paid

parental leave. A phrase that convinced me of this was “[...] [T]o liberate women, we

need to liberate men,” (Hathaway 2).

4. The audience is the UN. I know because she poke directly to them at a UN conference.

The audience keeps Anne Hathaway’s speech formal.

5. The most relevant details are the stories and statistics Hathaway uses when describing

how many women do not take a full maternity leave.

6. Logos is the most prevalent in the speech. Some quotes are: • “In 2013, provisions for

parental leave were in only 66 countries out of 190 UN member states,”(Hathaway 3). •

“American women are currently entitled to 12 weeks’ unpaid leave,” (Hathaway 2). •

“[...] [A] study in Sweden showed that every month fathers took paternity leave, the
 mothers’ income increased by 6.7 per cent,” (Hathaway 3). The author exercises her

credibility by delivering the speech in front of many people.

7. The three previous quotes lead me to believe that the theme for this speech is ‘Paid

parental leave would benefit parents’.

8. This speech provided many facts, so it helped me understand why parents need a paid

parental leave.

9. I might reduce the amount of ‘North’s in the text to make the speech less personal and

more formal.

10. OPTION 2: Parents should be given a 12 week paid parental leave. Many American

families are barely surviving with the money they make, and not being paid regularly

would put parents through severe economic hardships. For example, Anne Hathaway

says, “Let us lead by example in creating a world in which women and men are not

economically punished for wanting to be parents,” (Hathaway 3). Hathaway explains that

parents should not have to face economic hardships for taking the time to look after their

newborn babies. Because parents shouldn’t suffer economic hardships for taking the time

to be parents, 12 week paid parental leaves should be given.