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Duncan McCain

Dr. Clark

ENG 277

24 November 2021

Rhetorical Analysis of Carrie Chapman Catt’s 1917 Address to Congress

Introduction

In November of 1917, Carrie Chapman Catt wrote an open letter to Congress in an

attempt to convince legislators to pass women’s suffrage. This letter would go on to have a

lasting impact on the suffragist movement, and was given as a speech on many occasions from

1917 until women’s suffrage was eventually passed. Throughout the letter, Catt used a number of

rhetorical strategies to convince Congress that women’s suffrage should be passed, with the most

prominent rhetorical strategy being reframing. The biggest question is, were the arguments that

Catt made during her letter actually effective? Many people may believe that because so much

time had passed between Catt delivering the letter, and the amendment getting passed that the

letter was not effective. With that being said, through Catt’s ability to reframe the idea of

women’s suffrage as being a fight for American ideology rather than a new and dangerous idea, I

believe that she was able to effectively persuade her audience that women’s suffrage should be

passed.

Description of Text

Carrie Chapman Catt wrote this letter to Congress in November of 1917. In order for Catt

to effectively convince Congress to pass women’s suffrage, she broke down her top three reasons
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that she believed that women’s suffrage was inevitable. The first reason was because of the

history and core values of the United States, the second was that some states had already passed

it, and lastly because of the Unites States’ position of democratic leadership in the world. To

begin with, Catt explains that throughout United States history we have always claimed that the

government should be for the people and by the people. In order for that statement to hold true,

then women must be able to be involved in their government as well. Secondly, Catt explained

that since some of the states had already passed women’s suffrage laws, it was inevitable that the

United States would have to pass these laws eventually as well. One of the things that Catt did to

make this part of the letter particularly effective was explain how since women’s suffrage is

inevitable, any politicians and parties who stood in the way of passing it would not get the

women’s vote in the future. Lastly, Catt talked about the United States’ position of democratic

leadership in the world, and how the United States needed to pass women’s suffrage in order to

stay in a position of leadership. At the time of this letter being written, the United States was

fighting in the height of the First World War. Because of this, our position of leadership and the

way in which other democratic countries viewed us would have been very important to us at the

time. Catt does a good job of taking advantage of this fact, and using it to further her argument

for women’s suffrage.

Description of Rhetorical Concept

Catt was able to make an effective argument for her cause by reframing the idea of

women’s suffrage. Reframing is a rhetorical strategy that looks at an idea, and how it is viewed,

and attempts to frame it in a way that it was not viewed before. This is what Catt attempted to do

with her address to Congress. At the time, women’s suffrage was viewed by some people as a

new idea that may not be in line with the Constitution. Through the letter, however, Catt
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reframed the idea of women’s suffrage not as a new idea, but as something that is in line with the

ideology that the United States was founded on. By reframing the argument in the way that she

did, Catt was able to change the narrative surrounding women’s suffrage from being a new and

potentially dangerous idea, to one that was in-line with America’s values.

Report of the Findings

Catt began her letter by explaining that there are three reasons that women’s suffrage is

inevitable. The first reason she explains, is because of the history of the United States. Catt

explains that the reason that America gained independence in the first place is because of the

ideas that “Taxation without representation is tyranny,” and “Governments derive their just

powers from the consent of the governed.” She explains that since the beginning of our

country’s history we have fought wars and given great speeches about those two truths that we

claimed to believe in. Catt then goes on to attack the hypocrisy of the United States by claiming

to believe in these quotes but then taxing women, and governing over women without their

involvement in the process. By talking about women’s suffrage in this way, Catt is explaining to

Congress that passing women’s suffrage would not go against our core values, but would

actually do the opposite and would solidify and prove our belief in those values.

The second argument that Catt makes is that since women’s suffrage has been already

been passed in some states, it is inevitable that it will be passed nation-wide. In the opening

words of the letter, Catt says, “Woman suffrage is inevitable. Suffragists knew it before

November 4, 1917; opponents afterward.” That date in November is when the state of New York

passed women’s suffrage, which was one of the biggest victories for the suffrage movement at

the time. During this portion of the text Catt explains that the United States will not be able to be
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split on this issue, but rather that it will have to either be fully against women’s suffrage or fully

in favor of it. Because there were states that had already passed women’s suffrage and would not

go back on it, she shows that the only way forward is for the United States to be fully in favor of

women’s suffrage. Because Catt was able to reframe this issue as something that is inevitable,

she was then able to go into subtle threats to congress members about what would happen if they

did not pass the amendment. The way that she does this is by articulating that there will soon be

a whole new population of voters, and if the members of a party do not support the women in

their suffrage movement, then their party will be losing those votes once they are able to vote.

This can be seen multiples times throughout the text, but I believe that one of the quotes that best

shows her ability to intimidate Congress into passing the amendment is when she says, “The time

for woman suffrage has come. The woman's hour has struck. If parties prefer to postpone action

longer and thus do battle with this idea, they challenge the inevitable. The idea will not perish;

the party which opposes it may.” The first two reasons that Catt explains about why women’s

suffrage is inevitable shows her ability to reframe the idea as being something that is new and

potentially worrisome, to something that is in-line with American values and has already seen

success, but the third reason takes an approach at looking at the issue through the lens of the rest

of the world.

The third and final reason that Catt gives for women’s suffrage being inevitable is that

the United States’ role as the leaders of democracy will be affected if women’s suffrage is not

passed. Although women’s suffrage was a very prevalent issue in the United States at the time of

Catt’s address, most people would probably agree that the Federal Government’s main focus was

not on this issue, but rather on the war that was taking place in Europe. Catt realized this, and

incorporated it into the letter. One of the ways that she did this was by talking about what the war
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was about, and relating it to women’s suffrage. A quote that shows this is when Catt says, “The

world tragedy of our day is not now being waged over the assassination of an archduke, nor

commercial competition, nor national ambitions, nor the freedom of the seas. It is a death grapple

between the forces which deny and those which uphold the truths of the Declaration of

Independence.” By saying this, she is explains that the United States claimed to be fighting a war

to uphold freedom around the world, but the United States must also recognize that there was

still freedom that needed to be fought for within America as well. Another way that Catt was

able to use the war to her advantage was by playing on the fact that the United States needed its

allies, but its allies were against the United States not granting women full rights. She explains

that not all legislators are giving the issue enough attention, but since our allies are giving it

attention then they should as well. “Some of you have been too indifferent to give more than

casual attention to this question. It is worthy of your immediate consideration. A question big

enough to engage the attention of our allies in wartime is too big a question for you to neglect.”

The way that Catt reframes the issue of women’s suffrage from being a national issue, to being a

world issue that could impact the United States’ relationships with its allies is something that

would have been very effective during a time when America needed its allies the most.

Conclusion

Many people may believe that this letter was not effective since women’s suffrage was

not passed until years after the letter was given, but I do not believe that is the case. Looking at

the rhetoric used by Catt, and the way that she reframed the idea of women’s suffrage from being

a new and worrisome idea, to being something that is in line with American ideology and is

inevitable would have been a good way to get legislators to vote in favor of it. This technique

would have been especially effective given the fact that since she frames it as inevitable, the
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legislators may lose their jobs if they did not vote to pass women’s suffrage because then women

would not vote for them. When looking at how effective the letter was we must not forget the

historical context that the letter was written in. This letter was written during the deadliest war

that America had been a part of up until that point. It was, however, only seven months after the

end of the war that women’s suffrage was passed. Because of this, I believe that it is fair to say

that it is not because the letter was ineffective that women’s suffrage was not passed

immediately, but rather the United States government was trying to focus its energy on the war

that it was fighting, and women’s suffrage took a back seat to that issue at the time. The 19th

amemndment was eventually passed however, and Catt is credited with playing a major role in

making that happen because of her works such as this address to Congress, and her rhetorical

abilities to frame women’s suffrage as something that must be passed in order for America to

stay true to its values.

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Works Cited

Chapman, Carrie C. "Address to the Congress on Women's Suffrage." Nov. 1917.

Dismore, David. "November 6th, 1917." Turning Point Suffragist Memorial, 6 Nov. 2017,

suffragistmemorial.org/november-6-1917/.

"Carrie Chapman Catt, Open Address to the U.S. Congress, 1917." Bill of Rights Institute,

billofrightsinstitute.org/activities/carrie-chapman-catt-open-address-to-the-us-congress-1917.