Which one describes a persuasive argument:

Knowledge, intellect, delivery, inspiration, power, confidence, manipulation, motivating or one word for all of the above?

Rhetoric: the art of argument.

Today when we hear the word rhetoric, we might think of it in modern terms, particularly in relation to politics. In fact, as long as we’ve been able, human beings have used the concept of speech to argue and persuade with varying degrees of success.

In the age of mass media, persuasive messages surround us. Some documents and speeches seem to capture the imagination of a nation or a culture. Words move us to action, and they drive our decisions. 

Rhetoric, the art of persuasion, has a real effect on people’s behavior, and it can be any persuasive writing or speech. 

If you are trained in the art of rhetoric, this makes you a rhetorician. Many female rhetoricians mastered this art as males throughout history. 

Who are the greatest female rhetoricians in history?

Aspasia

Aspasia

Aspasia of Miletus was a scholar and philosopher whose intellectual influence distinguished her in Athenian culture. She opened a school of philosophy and rhetoric, and she is known to have had enormous influence over such prominent leaders and philosophers as Pericles, Plato, and Socrates. Aspasia’s writing, and her knowledge of philosophy and local politics, drew the most influential citizens in Athens, including notable writers and thinkers, to listen to her lectures. Aspasia’s writing, and her knowledge of philosophy and local politics, drew the most powerful citizens in Athens, including notable writers and thinkers, to listen to her lectures. Aspasia was acclaimed for her intellect and charisma, and Socrates, in his writings, credits her as his instructor in rhetoric. Though none of Aspasia’s own writings exist, many of the most famed ancient Greek scholars have featured her in their texts, acknowledging her as their muse.

Christine de Pisan

Christine de Pisan

Christine de Pisan (Christine de Pizan) was a medieval writer and historiographer who advocated for women’s equality. Her works, considered to be some of the earliest feminist writings, include poetry, novels, biography, and autobiography, as well as literary, political, and religious commentary. De Pisan became the first woman in France, and possibly Europe, to earn a living solely by writing.

“Just as women’s bodies are softer than men’s, so their understanding is sharper.” ― Christine de Pizan

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft was a renowned women’s rights activist who authored A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792, a classic of rationalist feminism that is considered the earliest and most important treatise advocating equality for women. This essay is often seen as the foundation of modern women’s rights movements in the Western World.

“Women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government. ” ―Mary Wollstonecraft

 
Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf is a renowned British novelist associated with the modernist movement in literature; her writing is characterized by experiments in language, narrative, and the treatment of time. Woolf is often considered one of the most innovative writers of the 20th century, best known for fractured narratives and writing in a stream-of-consciousness prose style, in which characters are depicted through their interior monologue; her books were sometimes called psychological novels. In her work, she also discusses the issues and prejudices surrounding women’s writing in the Western world.

“As a woman I have no country. As I woman my country is the whole world. ”― Virginia Woolf

 
Gertrude Buck

Gertrude Buck

Gertrude Buck was one of the powerful female rhetoricians of her time. Many scholars have found in Buck’s writing the beginning of feminine rhetoric. Buck’s individual work in rhetorical studies laid the foundation for the recent rise of New Rhetoricians, scholars who believe that writing is a social action and communication is a community experience. Miss Buck considered language a fundamentally social instrument used to further an organic conception of society, and thus approached writing and teaching democratically.

“Only as we relate other people’s experiences and ideas to our own are we able to see what we have to contribute, however small it may be, to the sum of human consciousness.”― Gertrude Buck

Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem

Steinem started her professional career as a journalist in New York, writing freelance pieces for various publications. Steinem was seeking more substantial social and political reporting assignments. She gained national attention in 1963 when Show magazine hired her to go undercover to report on the working conditions at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Club. Steinem’s life has been dedicated to the cause of women’s rights, as she led marches and toured the country as an in-demand speaker.

A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle. “― Gloria Steinem