Question

examine the following excerpt from emmeline pankhurst’s speech why we are militant. what reasoning does the author use to call for women to fight for political rights?

to men women are not human beings like themselves.
some men think we are superhuman; they put us on
pedestals; they revere us; they think we are too fine and too
delicate to come down into the hurly - burly of life. other
men think us sub - human; they think we are a strange
species unfortunately having to exist for the perpetuation
of the race. they think that we are fit for drudgery, but that
in some strange way our minds are not like theirs, our love
for great things is not like theirs, and so we are a sort of
sub - human species. . . .

when we were patient, when we believed in argument and
persuasion, they said, you don’t really want it because, if
you did, you would do something unmistakable to show
you were determined to have it. and then when we did
something unmistakable they said, you are behaving so
badly that you show you are not fit for it.

now, gentlemen, in your heart of hearts you do not believe
that. . . . you know perfectly well that if the situation were
reversed, if you had no constitutional rights and we had all
of them, if you had the duty of paying and obeying and
trying to look as pleasant, and we were the proud citizens
who could decide our fate and yours, because we knew
what was good for you better than you knew yourselves,
you know perfectly well that you wouldn’t stand for it a
single day, and you would be perfectly justified in rebelling
against such intolerable conditions.¹

¹ emmeline pankhurst, why we are militant (1913). from the digital history reader,
accessed december 13, 2013,
http://www.dhr.history.ucsb.edu/industries/euro/mod2_votes/conference_detail_03.html

a. she claims that men should place women on pedestals by
offering them their rights.

b. she argues that it is men, rather than women, who deserve more
limited political rights.

c. she tells men to imagine how they would react if the political
system were biased against them.

d. she argues that men claim they would fight for their rights, but
that they are actually too cowardly.

Explanation:

• Option A: The text shows men's wrong views of women (superhuman/sub - human), not that she wants men to put women on pedestals for rights. So A is wrong.
• Option B: The passage is about women's fight for political rights, not arguing men deserve limited rights. B is incorrect.
• Option C: In the text, she asks men to imagine a reversed situation (men without rights, women with all) and says men would rebel. This is her reasoning to call women to fight for political rights. So C matches.
• Option D: The text doesn't say men are cowardly; it uses men's hypothetical reaction to support women's right - fighting. D is wrong.

Answer:

C. She tells men to imagine how they would react if the political system were biased against them.