During the last decades, the attitude towards the leading positions of women has become a challengeable and timely issue not only in various business spheres, but also in politics. Therefore, numerous scholars in their works focused their attention on this question. Among such pieces, Ann Wicks and Raylene Lang-Dion’s article “Women in Politics: Still Searching for an Equal Voice” is worth attention. It is especially interesting for the audience, which is slightly familiar with the issue, but is interested in prospects for women in Canada’s Parliament and during the elections. The article convinces the audience that the analysis of the situation outside Canada can become quite instructive for the further representation of women in Canadian politics and their empowerment. Moreover, Ann Wicks, who is the executive director of Equal Voice, considers that struggling for the equality of genders is closely connected with the prospects for the female representatives in the political parties. Although the article does not have a big amount of evidences, the analysis of parliamentary and political system peculiarities of Sweden and Iceland together with logical structure and formal tone of the article inform the readers about the ways and aims to equal political position of men and women. The combination of such strategies as ethos, logos, and pathos contributes to informativeness and credibility of the article. Furthermore, it motivates the Canadians to conceive men and women as equal in all spheres.
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The article “Women in Politics: Still Searching for an Equal Voice” is quite informative about women’s position in the modern Canadian society. It argues how the appearance and gender of politicians can impact the way people perceive them. Wicks and Lang-Dion emphasize the existence of the belief in the fact “politics is something men do,” which is supported by many in the Canadian society. However, in order to compare the possible alternative to the “male politics,” the researchers offer to investigate the Sweden and Iceland’s national parliaments, which are oriented at equal treatment of male and female representatives. As a result, the authors of the article as a representative of equal voice offer to deliver the results in Canada. Therefore, the main aim of the article is to motivate people to contribute to prosperous and flourishing democracy by means of justice and equality.
It is essential to highlight that the authors refer to all three rhetorical means: ethos, logos, and pathos quite successfully. Considering the logos strategy, the logic of the arguments provided in the article should not be neglected. The readers can find the introduction, which provides information and quantitative data about the actuality of the issue of women position in politics (Wicks and Lang-Dion 34). The usage of such information and popular names and phrases helps the audience, which is not deeply aware about the problem, to understand it in general terms (Wicks and Lang-Dion 34). The thoughts flow softly and are supported by the evidences. The structure of the article together with subheadings of the parts of the body simplifies the search of information within the text. The authors also use the questions in the end of the paragraphs in order to draw links within the article (Wicks and Lang-Dion 35). The table illustrating the findings of research and examples from Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s speeches are appropriate to highlight how timely the issue of attitude towards women is (Wicks and Lang-Dion 35).
The rhetorical strategy called pathos, which deals with emotionality of the article, appears in the formal tone of the texts, which is not changed till the end. Nonetheless, some quotations, used as metaphors, are less serious and have an entertaining shade, which contribute to simplification of the text and effortless perception of the information by various readers. The questions used in the article entail people not to perceive the information thoughtlessly, but to reflect on the issue (Wicks and Lang-Dion 35). The connection of writing with the modern life through applying the recent data and functioning laws and political figures makes the audience feel emotionally closer to the problem. Therefore, it motivates them to change the flaws of the world, which is contemporary to it.
Regarding the usage of ethos, which deals with credibility of the information, one should pay attention that the authors used numerous quotations of politicians and scholars (Wicks and Lang-Dion 34). Moreover, the article is based on the research of the situation in other countries and provides the quantitative data about the amount of women participating in politics in Sweden, Iceland, and Canada. In addition, proper in-text citations and the list of works cited is another proof that the information in the research is reliable. Although Ann Wicks is a woman, and also an executive director of Equal Voice, it can make her attitude towards an issue biased (Wicks and Lang-Dion 34). Nevertheless, all the judgments are supported by the credible facts and her ideas are reasonable. Moreover, the authors refer to the records of this organization, which prove not only that Equal Voice and its representatives are unbiased, but also that the organization is ready to actions and applies forces to change life of the Canadians for better(Wicks and Lang-Dion 34).
To sum up, Ann Wicks and Raylene Lang-Dion’s article “Women in Politics: Still Searching for an Equal Voice” is concentrated around the issue of inequality in the society, namely, gender inequality in politics. In order to convey the readers, the authors have used the complex of rhetorical strategies, among which one can find logos, pathos, and ethos. Numerous credible quotations, examples from real life in the modern society convince the audience that gender inequality in general leads to inequality in terms of leadership. Therefore, the article motivates the readers to treat women equally to men in all spheres. Usage of a formal tone with simple academic language lets the audience, which is not deeply familiar about the poison of women in political Canadian structure, gets to know the basic prospects and possible ways of tackling the problem. Besides, the authors make the audience interested to find out more information and solutions.