At girls. This violence and treatment can

At the United Nations FourthWorld Conference on Women, in Beijing, China, on September 5, 1995, HillaryClinton, the First Lady of the United States at the time, gave a speech.

In this speech, Hillary Clinton represents women mainly intwo ways. One way is more stereotypical, because of the location of theconference, and how Chinese families tended to treat women and girls because ofthe one child policy. The other is more celebratory and empowering, because ofher own opinions on women’s rights, as well as because she knows women andgirls are watching, and wants to inspire and empower them.The location of the UnitedNations Fourth World Conference on Women, which was Beijing, China, impactedthe content of Clinton’s speech, and how she represented women in the speech.

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At the time, and until very recently, China had a policy where families wereonly permitted to have one child, in order to control population growth andlimit consumption of resources. This is known as the one child policy, andbecause of this, combined with a traditional preference for boys, baby girlswould be killed or abandoned so a couple could have a boy instead. Withknowledge of this, Clinton likely wrote the speech with the ill treatment ofgirls in China in mind. In her speech, Clinton states, “It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, ordrowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are borngirls.” This sentence explicitly describes the violence and treatmentbaby girls can receive simply because they are girls. This violence and treatmentcan be the reason for Clinton representing the social group of women in a morestereotypical way. In this speech, Clinton focuses heavily on the woman and thefamily, emphasizing that with equal rights for women, “their families willflourish.

” It can be inferred that she is speaking against the traditional favouritismfor baby boys and men that appears in China, as she is saying that if women are,firstly, allowed to live, then receive an education, healthcare and be free ofviolence, and are allowed to work and equally contribute to society, theirfamilies will flourish and be successful, even though they are women and thereis a bias that exists. Adding onto this, the violent treatment of women and theresulting inequality in the population shows that before attempting to jump toofar, Clinton wants to spread the message of starting small. The end goal isequality, but by representing women in stereotypical ways, Clinton isemphasizing that women are important and have roles in the family, which Chinatraditionally values. Clinton mentions that at the time of her speech, duringher speech, “women around the world are giving birth, raising children, cookingmeals, washing clothes, cleaning houses, planting crops, working on assemblylines, running companies, and running countries.” While some of the actionsClinton listed here are most definitely not stereotypical, such as the mentionof women running countries, the majority of those actions are stereotypical,and family oriented. If the Chinese population values family heavily, thenplacing an emphasis on a woman’s role in the family as well as in the householdcould begin to pave the path to equal treatment, or, at the very least, an endto the violent favouritism of baby boys over baby girls. Contrastingly,Clinton ensures to include the empowerment of women in this speech.

She doesnot let herself speak stereotypically of women throughout the entirety of thespeech. She also includes the theme of female empowerment, as well as inspirationfor the women and girls who will hear her words. At the beginning of thespeech, she calls the conference, “truly a celebration, a celebration of thecontributions women make in every aspect of life.

” This allows the audience,especially those who happen to be women, feel proud, and motivated to doeverything they can to help make equality of women a reality throughout theworld. Clinton has always been known as a feminist, and in this speech makesthis knowledge known. She discusses how she has spent 25 years working onissues that relate to women, children and families, and the two and a half yearsprior to this speech learning more about the challenges women in the UnitedStates and other countries face. Clinton ends the speech with a call to action.She talks directly to her audience, to the world, saying, “Now it is the timeto act on behalf of women everywhere.

” By speaking and acting on behalf ofwomen everywhere in this speech, Clinton is giving a voice to the women whoaren’t heard. Clinton is giving empowerment to the women she speaks about inher speech. She concludes the speech with a last bit of empowerment andmotivation, telling the audience, “The time is now. We must move beyondrhetoric. We must move beyond recognition of problems to working together.

” HillaryClinton’s feminist values are the reason that she includes this empowerment andmotivation for action within the speech. Even by making the decision, as theFirst Lady of the United States of America, to establish her own individualpolitical identity, she is inspiring women and young girls everywhere, byshowing them that they too can make a difference, and, if they choose, they canlead a country or give speeches like this. Overall, Clinton develops the themeof female empowerment in this speech using her feminist values and knowledge ofher audience.In conclusion, in her speech atthe United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, Hillary Clinton indeedrepresents women in a stereotypical manner, because of the initial audience andtheir traditional views and values on family and men, in order to attempt topave the path to equality of women.

She also creates a theme of femaleempowerment using her feminist values and knowledge of the impact her words andactions could have on women and young girls. 

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