Rhetorical Analysis on Article

Vanessa Murillo

Rhetorical Analysis on "How Does Gender Inequality Persist?"

Vanessa Murillo
RWS 1301
University of Texas at El Paso

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Introduction
Gender inequality can really be taken back in time. From the old days where women were
expected to be stay at home moms, to now a days where women are sometimes even payed less
than men even for doing the exact same job. Does equality even truly exist? This article explores
how gender inequality continues to exist in the work place, even when changes have happened to
eliminate gender discrimination at work. Along the years, women roles have changed, from
housewives, to secretaries, to being able to run for president. Despite great accomplishments, and
that Women now occupy 47% of the work force, we are yet to keep fighting for equality. Women
today are still earning less than their male peers for the same work output. The main idea of this
article focuses on Ridgeway's concept of "Gender Frame." Her concept is basically how our
automatic sex categorization of others influence our behaviors, and sometimes these influences
can create inequality.
Purpose and Audience
The purpose of this article is to describe how gender inequality still exists up to this day.
The author doesn't take a solid stand on either but it supports the main idea of gender inequality
by giving examples that really get you thinking about inequalities that truly exist. This article
goes to a wide variety of audience, not just the audience that believes that gender inequality
exists, because again, the examples that this article provides show how there is both gender
inequality for both men and women, not just for women as everyone likes to state. With her
Gender Frame concept we can see how people from both sexes automatically classify unknown
individuals into typical stereotypes based on their age, race, and of course sex. When this

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happens we take that influence that we've created based on what society thinks and thats how
some of our discrimination may begin.
Ethos
This article shows ethos by the credibility that the author of the book has. Cecilia
Ridgeway is a professor at Stanford. Professor Ridgeway's talks are sponsored by the Clayman
Institute, which is an Institute that empowers women and men to realize their professional
potential so they can excel and thrive. She has also published her book, "Framed by Gender:
How Gender Inequality Persists in the Modern World." Bringing up her Gender Frame concept to
the talks makes us understand a little more of her point of view, how she came up with it, and
why it is that she's trying to persuade us to acknowledge that inequality between the sexes still
exists in our modern world. Our writer of the article Susan Frisk, is a graduate student in
Sociology at Stanford.
Pathos
Pathos can be shown in this article by the Gender Frame concept. By what we think and
feel of the other sex just by judging their age and race, we're automatically making that person
fall into specific gender stereotypes, which makes us question if this person is "eligible enough"
to do the job that the opposite sex is meant to do. We shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but
based on standards that society has created, inequality and judgements still occur today.
Logos
The logic of the argument in this article can be supported by the research that Professor
Ridgeway has done, and what she has learned by different researches that others have made
towards the gender inequality topic.

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References
Fisk,S. 2011. How Does Gender Inequality Persist?. Framed by Gender:How Gender
Inequality Persists in the Modern World, Ridgeway,C., 2011