History Bump

Early education (26, 27) taught rhetoric’s agonistic purpose (to win cases through argumentation, 25), fueled by male status contests (25). Traditional rhetorical success depended on a masculine “ethos” (28-9). Early women rhetoricians are rare (28). Women, could not participate even as audience to oral debates, were not exposed to rhetorical forms in daily life, and were excluded from schools. The Christian church as a rhetorical arena also excluded women (31). The privatization of women in medieval life did not prevent them from participating to some extent in reading and writing, which were considered private activities (32).

Medieval rhetoric developed two strands. Preaching became the 13th century “New Rhetoric’s” oral, public, male form (35). The 12th century emergence of ars dictaminis (the art of letter-writing) shifted from preparation of orations to written end products (33). Model letters demonstrated the proper presentation of an argument in written form (33-34). During the English Reformation a few “preacherless” sects permitted female preaching (37), though many 17th century women preachers (particularly Quakers) were imprisoned or killed for heresy (38-39).

The late 18th century saw the first schools for Young Ladies with classes in rhetoric (40), and the first colleges for women were founded in the early 19th century (42-43). Apart from the abolition movement (41), no public forum was generally available for women. Only a handful of colleges were coeducational until the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act of 1862 (43), but by 1900 ¾ of the colleges in the US admitted women (43).

In 19th century all-male colleges, rhetoric had pedagogical and civic value. The university system was built on ritual contests between faculty and students as well as on competition between students. (47-49). Women’s presence altered campus life and classroom practices (49). Discussion, seminar, and laboratory formats replaced lecture/recitation methods (49). Women resisted reading aloud in mixed company, and men were reluctant to debate women (49-50). Literary analysis and private writing assignments, voluntary participation in discussion, and professors’ written comments emerged. (50-51), and oral rhetoric gave way to written composition (51-52). Women were taught analytical rhetoric, rather than being offered public fora (53). The belles letters approach espoused by Blair emphasized composition (53-54) and fit this approach. Women were expected not to participate in oratory and debate (56-57), and rhetorical oratory gave way to a more aesthetic style of public speaking (59-60). Whately’s 1828 text on argumentative composition was replaced by Bain’s 1866 text which focused on modes of discourse: narration, description, exposition, and argument (61). Argumentation as a special mode focused on logic in Baker’s proposal to “train students to think” (63). Prompts for composition shifted to more personal topics (64-65). The Process Movement sprang up as women students began to outnumber men (66-67).