Cas Horne

“Ain’t I A Woman” Analysis

Introduction
While analyzing Sojourner Truth’s speech “Ain’t I a Woman”, it’s important to take a critical
look at the rhetorical tools used to create meaning for the audience witnessing the artifact in
action. It’s crucial to ask what strategies were used and are available to rhetors to disrupt
hegemonic perspectives to help spread a feminist message. Doing so allows us to see the
change from the traditional ways of rhetorical criticism and to gain insight from a variety of
different perspectives which traditional rhetoric oftentimes lacked. This piece by Truth in
particular shows the delicate combination of both feminist and rhetorical theories. The
audience can even see inklings of ‘intersectionality’ which later becomes a center piece of
feminist writing and theories. Through feminist rhetorical criticism, rhetorical critics can
examine how Truth disrupted hegemonic perspectives and the status quo.

Description of Artifact
Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” was delivered at the 1851 Women’s Convention in Akron
Ohio. Truth was born into slavery before fighting for freedom for herself and her children.
(Michals) At fifty-four years old, she was the only woman at the convention who had
experienced slavery. (Sloat) The speech comes about as a response to how women at the time
are seen as delicate creatures that need help getting out of carriages. Truth combats this by
saying she doesn’t experience such luxuries. In fact, her experience as a slave shows that
women are far more capable than the average man back in that day would expect. Truth goes
on to respond to a man in the audience’s statement that women can’t have as many rights as
men due to the religious reasons & because Jesus Christ wasn’t a woman. She opposes this
argument by stating that the man they believe to be worthy of complete worship and is all
powerful came from a woman. She continues this religious metaphor as she speaks about who
has been identified as the first woman in Christianity. With the mention of Eve, from the story
of Adam & Eve, she states once again that women are stronger than men in this time period
give them credit for as Eve was able to “turn the world upside down all alone.” She then uses
this as a rallying call to say that the women at the convention have a similar amount of power.
Truth ends the speech gracefully by saying she’s grateful to be heard and has nothing more to
say.

Description of Feminist Criticism

While feminist criticism does take inspiration from the feminist movement, feminist rhetorical
criticism is not solely focused on women. The purpose of feminist criticism is to challenge
hegemonies that act as dominant or standard ways of viewing rhetoric, artifacts, and reality.
This type of rhetorical criticism tends to focus on artifacts that oppressed or silenced groups of
all kinds (not just women). (Foss) Feminist rhetorical critics tend to self-determination, equality,
immanent value, and disrupting the status quo. (Foss) Critics are able to analyze this way and
create new ways of thinking through various rhetorical tools, such as:

• Generating multiple perspectives presents various views on a topic to combat the

prevailing notion that there is one perspective available. (Foss)
• Reframing is a rhetorical device that shifts the perspective of a situation or artifact to
create new meaning. (Foss)
• Juxtaposing incongruities merges categories that are believed to be mutually exclusive.
(Foss)

Report of Findings
Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” acts as a prevailing and radical call for equality. The act of
speaking for women’s rights in a time where that wasn’t ultimately accepted is disrupting the
status quo and creating new ideas just from the start. While, again, feminist criticism doesn’t
solely focus on women’s rights, this speech is a great piece of feminist literature. It calls for
equality for an oppressed group which is what feminist criticism is all about at its core. Through
my study of “Ain’t I a Woman?”, I will be using the aforementioned feminist rhetorical tools to
analyze and better understand the speech.

The first feminist rhetorical tool I will be using for this piece is generating multiple perspectives.
While not only being important for women’s rights, this speech taps into a very important
concept in feminism called intersectionality. This is a term about how cumulative or multiple
forms of discrimination overlap or intersect. (Coaston) Sojourner Truth is a black woman and
former slave at a Women’s Convention in 1851 when the prevailing idea of feminism was often
to uplift white, middle-class women. We see Truth asking with repetition the title of the speech,
“Ain’t I a Woman?” This phrase often appears in contrast with how her experience as a former
slave has shaped her. She generates multiple perspectives in response to the prevailing notion
that women are too gentle and need too much help to have proper rights. She wasn’t treated
gently while living in slavery, so clearly there isn’t one encompassing viewpoint to this issue,

The second rhetorical tool I would like to use to show how this piece disrupts hegemonies
perspectives is juxtaposing incongruities. Truth's experience with slavery also acts as a
juxtaposing incongruity to the socially accepted idea at the time. She uses repetition to
emphasize the word ‘woman’ as she describes her experiences as a slave that many people
wouldn’t associate with women at the time. Truth describes her experience ploughing, planting,
and gathering into barns and uses her arms and hands as proof of her hard work. This kind of
work isn’t often associated with women, and she uses this to blur the lines of what the
audience knows about women’s experiences. Considering what many audiences knew about
women’s experiences revolved around white women, this juxtaposes their prior knowledge and
goes against the traditional way of thinking.

The final feminist rhetorical tool I want to use is reframing. Truth uses well-known symbols and
narrative to add to her cause. Through the mention of the Biblical figure Eve, she reframes what
this figure has come to represent over time. While Eve has been depicted and come to
symbolize positive ideas, she is also considered someone who ruined the garden of Eden
through eating the forbidden fruit. While this has been categorized through history as a
negative situation, Truth uses this metaphor to show the power of women. Saying that Eve
“turned the world upside down all alone” gives power and strength to the story compared to
how it’s been interpreted in the past. Truth then uses the story of Eve as a rallying call or a story
of how much might a woman can hold, the ability women have to change reality around them.

Discussion
This analysis contributes to rhetorical theory through its analysis of feminist rhetorical criticism
and building upon Sojourner Truth’s message. Connecting feminist concepts with rhetorical
tools allows us to analyze an even deeper meaning behind the speech. Through generating
multiple perspectives, the speech shows a level of intersectionality and generates new ideas
that are far off from the status quo. In many ways, the speech can be seen as an early example
of intersectionality years before the term was coined and used throughout feminist theories.
The same can be said for juxtaposing incongruities as Truth juxtaposes her experiences with the
more accepted experiences of being a woman at the time (i.e. a middle-class, white woman).
Finally, with the act of reframing, Truth reassesses the biblical story of Eve to give power to her
actions and show the strength of women. This adds to rhetorical theory as it shows the power
of feminist rhetorical criticism and great examples for many of the tools associated with this
type of criticism. The importance ventures even further as it connects to many themes that
later became major theories in feminism. This analysis of Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman”
shows how feminist rhetoric can create lasting change and go against hegemonies perspectives.

Citation
Michals, Debra. "Sojourner Truth." National Women's History Museum. National Women's

History Museum, 2015.

Sloat, Sarah. “Sojourner Truth’s ‘Ain’t I a Woman’ Speech Had a Life Beyond 1851.” Inverse, 1

Feb. 2019, www.inverse.com/article/52950-sojourner-truth-ain-t-i-a-woman.

Foss, Sonja K. Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice. Available from: VitalSource
Bookshelf, (5th Edition). Waveland Press, Inc., 2017.
Coaston, Jane. “The Intersectionality Wars.” Vox, 28 May 2019,

www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-
gender-discrimination.