Advances in the History of Rhetoric Oct 2012

“Resolved That the Mind of Woman Is Not Inferior to That of Man”: Women's Oratorical Preparation in California State Normal School Coeducational Literary Societies in the Late Nineteenth Century

Suzanne Bordelon

Abstract

ABSTRACT Complicating claims about the decline of oratorical culture in the nineteenth century, this article demonstrates that rhetorical training was integral to the coeducational literary societies at California State Normal School in the 1870s and 1890s and that women benefited from such education. The societies were based on assumptions of relative equality between the sexes, fostering the development of teachers who would serve as powerful public speakers and leaders within their communities. This study also challenges arguments concerning the feminization of argumentation in the nineteenth century by highlighting the centrality of debate to the societies and the ways this argument overlooks such activities.

Journal
Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published
2012-10-01
DOI
10.1080/15362426.2012.697679
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Topics
multilingual writers argument

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (8)

  1. Bordelon (2011)
    Participating on an “Equal Footing”: The Rhetorical Significance of California …
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Bordelon (2005)
    Contradicting and complicating feminization of rhetoric narratives: Mary Yost a…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Gold (2005)
    "Where Brains Had a Chance": William Mayo and Rhetorical Instruction at East Te…
    College English
  4. Ricker (2004)
    "Ars Stripped of Praxis": Robert J. Connors on Coeducation and the Demise of Ag…
    Rhetoric Review
  5. Rothermel (2003)
    A sphere of noble action: Gender, rhetoric, and influence at a nineteenth‐centu…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Show all 8 →
  1. Westbrook (2002)
    Debating Both Sides: What Nineteenth-Century College Literary Societies Can Tea…
    Rhetoric Review
  2. Bacon et al. (2000)
    Reinventing the master's tools: Nineteenth‐century African‐American literary so…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Mastrangelo (1999)
    Learning from the past: Rhetoric, composition, and debate at Mount Holyoke College
    Rhetoric Review
Also cites 8 works outside this index ↓
  1. Connors (1997)
    Composition-Rhetoric: Backgrounds, Theory, and Pedagogy
     ↗
  2. Conway (1995)
    Woman Suffrage and the History of Rhetoric at the Seven Sisters Colleges, 1865–1919
     ↗
  3. Fitzgerald (2001)
    A Rediscovered Tradition: European Pedagogy and Composition in Nineteenth-Century Midwest…
    College Composition and Communication  ↗
  4. Hellman (1942)
    The Influence of the Literary Society in the Making of American Orators
    Quarterly Journal of Speech  ↗
  5. Kelly (2009)
    Women's Rhetorical Agency in the American West: The New Penelope.
    Women's Studies in Communication  ↗
  6. Ogren (2005)
    The American State Normal School: “An Instrument of Great Good.”
     ↗
  7. Rothermel (2007)
    ‘Our Life's Work’: Rhetorical Preparation and Teacher Training at a Massachusetts State N…
     ↗
  8. Smith-Rosenberg (1973)
    The Female Animal: Medical and Biological Views of Woman and Her Role in Nineteenth-Centu…
    Journal of American History  ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 1 View in citation network →

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