ENGLISH FOR INTERNATIONAL

STUDIES
Language, gender and politics
Rhetorical analysis of Kamala
Harris’s Victory Speech
DIFFERENCES IN COMMUNICATION BETWEEN
MEN AND WOMEN
Research into the connection between language and
gender has also examined possible differences
between men’s and women’s communication styles .
Certain linguistics traits have been identified by a
number of scholars as typical of men’s and women’s
speech. Here is a list of some key works:

Robin Lakoff – «Language and Woman’s Place»,1973

Deborah Tannen- You just don’t understand, 1990
Jennifer Coates – Women, Men and Language, 2004
Cameron, D.; Shaw, S. (2016). Gender, Power and
Political Speech. Basingstoke, Palgrave.
 Differences between women’s and men’s talk – Look at the
following table and decide which “linguistic behaviour” is more
typical of “men” and which of “women”
Men Wome
n
Who uses more words for colours?
Who uses more swearwords?
Who uses more direct quotations?
Who tells more jokes?
Who is more likely to initiate
conversation?
Who uses more euphemisms?
Who is more interested in getting
factual information?
Who tends to interrupt more?
Who is often indecisive or hesitant?
 Differences between women’s and men’s
talk
ANSWER
Men Wome
n
Who uses more words for colours? V

Who uses more swearwords? V

Who uses more direct quotations? V

Who tells more jokes? V

Who is more likely to initiate V

conversation?
Who uses more euphemisms? V

Who is more interested in getting V

factual information?
Who tends to interrupt more? V

Who is often indecisive or hesitant? V

The differences in language behavior highlighted in the
table above have been identified through studies which
are not conclusive because such behaviors often
depend on specific circumstances. In general, women
tend to avoid swear words, use euphemisms and
prefer standard grammatical forms. They are less
assertive and use "hedges," expressions that indicate
caution about what is said, e.g., "It seems like..." or "It's
kind of…/sort of ..." .
Men use more swear words and non-standard
grammatical forms, they tend to be more
assertive and confident when communicating, e.g.
they tell jokes and interrupt other speakers. However, it
has been observed that men also have a similar
communicative style to women when they are in
situations in which they feel less powerful.
The picture refers to
a meeting between
British PM Theresa
May and Scotland’s
first minister Nicola
Sturgeon that took
place in March 2017
The women in the picture
are Theresa May and
Andrea Leadsom who, at
the time when the picture
was taken, July 2016,
were candidates to
become Britain’s next PM.
The visual and verbal representation of women in
the two frontpages above delegitimises them, i.e.
their authority as political leaders is diminished
and undermined.

The Daily Mail’s frontpage focuses on the two

leaders’ physical attributes, with a pun on their
legs, implying that the way they look is more
important than their political skill.
The Daily Star’s frontpage uses the term «girls» to
refer to two adult women, a patronizing and
offensive word as it evokes an image of youth,
immaturity and vulnerability.
Thanks to the growing number of women in politics,
attention to gender discrimination in this area has
increased.
In the US, an increasing number of women have been
elected to Congress. 1992 was declared “the year of
the woman” as 24 women were elected to the House
of Representatives and four women to the Senate.
The term has also been used in 2018, when 103
women were elected to the House of Representatives.
 In recent years, women have also been nominated
and often elected to the most important offices.
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, became the first
woman to be speaker of the House. Hillary Clinton
became the first woman in the United States to
receive the presidential nomination from a major
political party. Kamala Harris was the first woman to
become Vice President of the US.
WHO IS KAMALA HARRIS?
- She was born in Oakland, California in 1964.
- Her parents were immigrants, her mother
from India and her father from Jamaica.
- She studied political science and economics
(B.A., 1986) and law (1989).
- She worked as a deputy district attorney
(1990–98) in Oakland, earning a reputation
for toughness as she prosecuted cases of
gang violence, drug trafficking, and sexual
abuse.
- She obtained the position of attorney general
of California in 2011.
- She served as a Senator, representing
California (2017-2021)
- She became the new US Vice President in
2020 after Joe Biden won the 2020
presidential election.
Watch the video of Vice President elect
Kamala Harris’s speech on 7 November
2020 in Wilmington,
Delaware.(https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=MXnePLTILY4&t=36s)

How would you describe her performance?

Do you notice any difference from other
political speakers?
Does her speech follow the typical
structure of victory speeches?
What are the main themes/topics of her
speech?
Analyse Kamala Harris’s victory speech and
identify:

•Repetitive patterns (tricolon, binomials, bicolons): where

do they occur? Do they occur in important parts of her
speech?
•Metaphors: are there any? Are they original or standard?
•Cultural and historical references and quotations: are
there any? Do you know these references? Why does the
speaker expect them to have an impact on her
audience?
•Are there relatable experiences? Which ones?
•In addition to the questions above, you can also refer to
the questions in the slide below (see also ‘dispensa’ p.
28)
When analysing a political speech, you may ask the following questions:
1. What is the speaker’s argument or central claim? What is the purpose of the
speech?
2. Do you find that argument persuasive? Why or why not?
3. Are rhetorical devices used? (e.g. Repetitions: Tricolons, Bicolons, Binomials)
4. Are there figures of speech? (Metaphors, similes, metonymies, alliterations)
5. Is the speaker relying on facts and figures to support his/her points and
proposals?
6. Does the speaker include any personal stories, jokes, or ‘relatable’
experiences?
7. How does the speaker use pronouns such as ‘I’, ‘we’, and ‘they’?
8. Is the speech concerned with proposing a vision or attacking any opposition?
9. Does the speaker make any reference to the history of their party or any
reference to tradition?
10. Did these strategies seem effective and appropriate? Would they work for
different contexts or communities?
11. How do the context and moment seem to affect the content and delivery of
the speech?
12. How does the speech reflect or construct particular cultural values? Through
what word choice, allusions, jokes, historical references?
CULTURAL/AUTHORITATIVE REFERENCE:
JOHN LEWIS
John Lewis was a member of the House of
Representatives for the state of Georgia and a
legendary figure as an activist for civil rights.

Born in Alabama in 1940, Lewis became one of

the leading figures in the civil rights struggle
in the 1960s. In 1963, he helped organise the
March on Washington at which Martin Luther
King gave his 'I have a dream' speech.

Lewis has been called the 'conscience of

Congress' and was a highly respected
politician.

He died in July 2020.

Kamala Harris’s quotation “Democracy is not a state.
It is an act” comes from a short essay by John Lewis,
written just before his death and published by The
New York Times.

“An impassioned plea to

Americans to reroute the
history of the country by
standing up for what they
believe in and voting.”
(The Daily Beast, 30/7/20)

“The vote is the most powerful

nonviolent change agent you
have in a democratic society.”
John Lewis
«Like so many young people today, I was
searching for a way out, or some might say a way
in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the
philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said
we are all complicit when we tolerate
injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will
get better by and by. He said each of us has a
moral obligation to stand up, speak up and
speak out. When you see something that is not
right, you must say something. You must do
something. Democracy is not a state. It is an
act, and each generation must do its part to help
build what we called the Beloved Community, a
nation and world society at peace with itself.”
(From John Lewis’s essay)
 «Emmett Till was my
George Floyd. He was my
Rayshard Brooks, Sandra
Emmett Till was 14-year-old African
Bland and Breonna Taylor.
American who was lynched in He was 14 when he was
Mississippi in 1955, after being killed, and I was only 15
accused of offending a white woman.
His brutal murder drew attention to
years old at the time. I will
racial violence against African never ever forget the
Americans in the US. moment when it became so
clear that he could easily
have been me.”(From John
Kamala Harris’s expression ‘We the people’ comes from
the US Constitution (1789) . What is the effect of using this
expression?
Read paragraphs 2, 3 and 4. What are
they about? Is there a continuation of
the same theme/idea? Are there new
themes/ideas?
Are themes/ideas highlighted by
particular rhetorical elements?
Tricolons in Kamala Harris’s speech:

Par. 1- DEMOCRACY …. Fight for it, guard it, never

take it for granted
Par 2.- To our campaign staff…To the poll workers…
to the American people…
Par. 3- The grief, sorrow and pain ; your courage,
your resilience, and the generosity of your spirit; for
equality and justice, for our lives, and for our planet.
Par. 4 – a healer, a uniter, a tested and steady hand
Par. 5 – equality, liberty and justice; 100 years ago
…55 years ago…now, in 2020; their struggle…
determination…strength
Par. 6 - Dream with ambition…lead with
conviction…see yourself
Paragraph 5 is especially important as here two key topics
of her speech (black people’s rights and women’s rights)
are interwoven through a tricolon. It refers to three key
events in the history of women’s struggle for emancipation
and the fight against racial discrimination
 «100 years ago with the 19th Amendment» – Kamala
Harris refers to the historic date in 1920 when women
gained the right to vote in America with the 19 th
Amendment.
 “55 years ago with the Voting Rights Act” – a
reference to the 1965 law which explicitly prohibited
racial discrimination in voting. While from 1920
technically everybody in the US had the right to vote,
people of colour were discouraged or prevented from
voting. For instance, one way of doing this was to ask
people to pass a ‘literacy test’. Strategies of this kind
are called ‘voter suppression’ and were outlawed by
the 1965 law.
 “and now, in 2020” – she refers to her own election,
the first African American female Vice President.
In par. 5 Kamala Harris also refers to black
women as «the backbone of our
democracy» and later she states that «I
stand on their shoulder».
Which figure of speech is she using in these
two sentences?
In what way are they related?
Relatable experiences
We can also find references to a few ‘relatable
experiences’ (i.e. stories and experiences people
can relate to and identify with).

«A person whose own experience of loss…. The

father who loved Beau» ( a reference to Beau
Bide, Joe Biden’s son who died in 2015 and was a
good friend of Kamala Harris)
«When she came here from India at the age of
19» (these few details about Kamala Harris’s
mother are enough to evoke the experience of
many migrant people)