{"id":19409,"date":"2023-09-29T08:16:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T08:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mediashower.com\/blog\/?p=19409"},"modified":"2023-10-06T14:20:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T14:20:32","slug":"hillary-clinton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/hillary-clinton\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillary Clinton Defines Women\u2019s Rights as Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>TL;DR: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hillary Clinton&#8217;s &#8220;Women&#8217;s Rights Are Human Rights&#8221; speech teaches us that common sense is not always common<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To communicate big ideas, it\u2019s crucial to <\/span><b>use language that creates a shared understanding.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>So What?<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It&#8217;s easy to forget that struggles for human rights and dignity are still ongoing in many parts of the world. <\/span><b>Clinton uses the long-established language of human rights to acknowledge that women, and the work of women, are often left out of the discussion.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her use of short, impactful rhetoric tied to law and data makes this speech a lesson in cutting through the fluff and <\/span><b>speaking directly to the heart of the matter. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here&#8217;s what great communicators can learn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe title=\"Hillary Clinton - 4th World Conference for Women Speech\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6V9mHmeK7XM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mastering International Speech: What We Can Learn from Hillary Clinton<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The notion that women deserve equal rights should be common sense\u2026 and yet, even in modern times, women often bear the brunt of oppression and inequality. When Hillary Clinton delivered her groundbreaking \u201cWomen&#8217;s Rights Are Human Rights\u201d speech at the UN&#8217;s Fourth World Conference on Women, she forced an international audience to acknowledge that the deep and lasting rhetoric of human rights often did not extend to women.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are the communication techniques that Clinton used to make this speech so effective.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using Simple Language<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even though Clinton was speaking to a delegation of educated, accomplished individuals, most do not share the same lived experience\u2013or even the same language. So she uses plain language to articulate her point.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It wasn\u2019t just that she used simple words; she used simple words <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">without dumbing down her message<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. So many novice communicators believe that \u201csimple equals stupid,\u201d but Clinton\u2019s speech shows us how powerful and intelligent ideas are expressed without adorning them with unnecessary language.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lather, Rinse, Repeat: Using Repetition<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-19412 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2.jpeg-min-1-3.jpg\" alt=\"young hilary clinton on a podium\" width=\"780\" height=\"530\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2.jpeg-min-1-3.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2.jpeg-min-1-3-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2.jpeg-min-1-3-1024x696.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2.jpeg-min-1-3-768x522.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2.jpeg-min-1-3-1536x1044.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clinton uses repetition several times in her speech. Toward the beginning, she talks about how there are amazing and powerful women all over the globe. Instead of talking about them as ideas, she repeats the phrase \u201cI have met\u201d for each type of woman she wants to highlight\u2026 a technique known as \u201canaphora:\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI have met new mothers in Jojakarta, Indonesia, who come together regularly in their village to discuss nutrition, family planning, and baby care. <\/span><\/i><i>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have met working parents in Denmark who talk about the comfort they feel in knowing that their children can be cared for in creative, safe, and nurturing after-school centers.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have met women in South Africa who helped lead the struggle to end apartheid and are now helping build a new democracy.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have met with the leading women of the Western Hemisphere who are working every day to promote literacy and better health care for the children of their countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have met women in India and Bangladesh who are taking out small loans to buy milk cows, rickshaws, thread and other materials to create a livelihood for themselves and their families. &#8216; <\/span><\/i><i>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have met doctors and nurses in Belarus and Ukraine who are trying to keep children alive in the aftermath of Chernobyl.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This repetition helps the audience understand women not as ideas but as people who plug into politics, war, family, and the economy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Repetition can make a longer text or speech easier to follow. Repetition makes things easier to remember. Repetition, repetition, repetition.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In marketing, it\u2019s often useful to use anaphora to repeat key points or messages in a way that\u2019s memorable and lasting for the audience, whether by using slogans or a clever turn of phrase.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using Epimone<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Near the end of her speech, Clinton employs a similar technique called \u201cepimone\u201d (pronounced eh-PIM-o-nee). This is a broader type of repetition where the speaker focuses the audience\u2019s attention on a repeated idea.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This time, she uses the phrase \u201cIt is a violation of human rights\u201d and gives the audience many examples of women\u2019s rights that are human rights. She does this to drive home the idea that the challenges that women face aren\u2019t only faced by women, even if their experiences are often lost on the international stage:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, drowned, suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls. &#8216;\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes. <\/span><\/i><i>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a violation of human rights when young girls are brutalized by the painful and degrading practice of genital mutilation.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It violates human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, including being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This repetition is central to women\u2019s rights being <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">human<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> rights. We can recognize the violation of these rights as a universal concern, but the repetition of these rights connects with her previous repetition of the women she\u2019s known.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Repeating ideas is one thing, but connecting those ideas to real examples of events in the world is what makes them solid and persuasive for your audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using Emotional Engagement and Rational Appeal<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the surface, Clinton\u2019s message is a rational and logical one: women are human beings; therefore, women\u2019s rights are human rights.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The substance of Clinton\u2019s message, though, is emotional. She appeals to her audience emotionally by invoking stories about the women she has met who are doing and making extraordinary things. She talks about the problems they face in a personal rather than a clinical way. You can tell that this issue is important to her on a personal level.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Emotional rhetoric helps Clinton connect with her audience in a way that rational rhetoric does not: as humans. They understand her feelings because they feel the same way. The emotional connection she creates invites them to care about her and what she\u2019s saying in her speech.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s the truth: people want to support people they care about. Sure, your product might be awesome, but if your audience doesn\u2019t care about you\/your company, they aren\u2019t likely to buy what you are selling\u2014especially if your market is highly competitive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-19413\" src=\"http:\/\/mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/3.jpeg.jpg\" alt=\"hilary clinton giving a speech\" width=\"500\" height=\"598\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/3.jpeg.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/3.jpeg-251x300.jpg 251w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creating Connections Through Universal Values<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most of the time, you will focus on all the stuff you and your audience have in common. This helps them relate to you and form that all-important emotional bond.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hillary Clinton (even in 1995) is a wealthy, white, heterosexual woman from the United States. Her experiences and her day-to-day life are not universal. She has faced very different challenges from her audience, and doesn\u2019t have to worry about the same things they do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So why do they pay attention when she speaks? Why do they adopt her message as their own?<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because she manages to both put herself at the center of the story (\u201cI have met\u201d) and take herself completely out of it by telling the story of other women from around the world. She talks about the things that all women have in common but highlights examples that are not hers.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And when she does talk about who she wants to elevate, she talks about not who she wants to speak for, but who she wants to speak <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">up <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI want to speak up for mothers who are fighting for good schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air and clean airwaves. . . for older women, some of them widows, who have raised their families and now find that their skills and life experiences are not valued in the workplace. . . for women who are working all night as nurses, hotel clerks, and fast food chefs so that they can be at home during the day with their kids. . . and for women everywhere who simply don&#8217;t have time to do everything they are called upon to do each day.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grammatically, it\u2019s a small difference. Rhetorically, it\u2019s a massive step toward being an ally rather than a lecturer.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Communication Is About Creating a Common Ground<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you want to create messaging that sticks, remember that you are talking to people, not an algorithm. To emphasize her message, Clinton uses repetition, emotional appeal, and contextual awareness. These great human communication techniques can help you, too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are you looking to forge real connections and relationships with your customers? Learn how Media Shower can help craft content that can reach your audience. <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/mediashower.com\/user\/free_trial?__mscta=2850_97485_162\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Try the award-winning Media Shower content platform for free<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mediashower.com\/user\/free_trial?__mscta=2850_97485_162\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-17809 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/MediaShower-CTA-1-1.png\" alt=\"Free trial CTA\" width=\"680\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/MediaShower-CTA-1-1.png 680w, https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/MediaShower-CTA-1-1-300x106.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Delve into the world of persuasive communication with a close look at Hillary Clinton&#8217;s famous \u201cWomen&#8217;s Rights are Human Rights\u201d speech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":19410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[459],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19409"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19433,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19409\/revisions\/19433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}