“THESE ARE THE TIMES THAT TRY WOMEN’S SOULS” THE PROVERBIAL RHETORIC FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS BY ELIZABETH CADY STANTON AND SUSAN B. ANTHONY
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Abstract
While much is known about the proverbial rhetoric of such well-known American male politicians and social reformers as John Adams, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Martin Luther King, and Barack Obama, there has been no such interest in the proverbial speech of female public figures. And yet, even a cursory glance at the letters, speeches, and essays of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) and Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) clearly reveals that these two nineteenth-century feminists are any time the equals of the male political giants when it comes to the employment of proverbial language during the fifty years of their un-ceasing, emotive, and aggressive struggle for women’s rights. The partial justification of referring to Stanton and Anthony as “rhetorical giants” is due to their incredibly effective use and innovative manipulation of proverbial wisdom and proverbial metaphors in the service of feminist rhetoric. Advocating and teaching go hand in hand to a certain degree, and no wonder that Stanton and Anthony often saw themselves in the role of educating women in demanding their self-evident rights as equals of men. Since proverbs among other functions often take on a didactic function, it should thus not be surprising that they would call on them to add generational wisdom to their arguments. Of course, that is not to say that these forward-looking reformers did not also disagree with some of the traditional messages of proverbs! In other words, both Stanton and Anthony made use of proverbial language in whatever way it served their social reform purpose. There is no doubt that proverbs are strategies for dealing with typical situations, and it is thus a natural consequence that for these two feminists they become verbal signs for recurrent social situations that need to be questioned and changed as far as the role of women is concerned. Following some introductory re-marks, numerous proverbs and proverbial expressions are discussed in their rhetorical contexts under seven headings: 1. The proverbial partnership of two nineteenth-century feminists; 2. Proverbial language in letters of social activism; 3. Folk proverbs in the service of arguments for women’s rights; 4. Proverbial quotations in pointed sociopolitical writings; 5. Classical phrases and proverbial quotations in published essays; 6. The proverbial fight for educational and professional justice for women; and 7. The golden rule as a proverbial sign of equality.
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