Sayers, an Oxford literary scholar, delivered the speech Are Women Human? to a women’s society in 1938. She argues for equality between the sexes on the basis that men and women are human, and should be treated as such. She uses wit and sarcasm to successfully convey her argument and silences dissenting voices in a way that leaves audience members questioning their bold sexist opinions. Part of the speech’s success is because of the choice of words that immediately gives off a tone of equality. Sayers’ tone of equality is well displayed during part of the speech when she says “If they are going to adopt the very sound principle that the job should be done by by the person who does it best, then the rule must be applied universally.” (Sayers, 321). This means since women and men alike are human the principle of this quote applies to everyone, thus if a women can do a job better than a man she should have that job and vice versa. She further tells the women’s society “Indeed, it is my …show more content…
While there are those who believe women do not know what they want, Sayer responds to the claim stating, “What, men have asked distractedly from the beginning of time, “what on earth do women want” I do not know that women, as women, want anything in particular, but as human beings they want, my good men, exactly what you want yourselves …” (326). Her statement established that women are human like men, and men have some desires to be fulfilled. Women must therefore have similar wants and Sayers eliminated the mold of a particular want. These stereotypes all put women in a negative light and “Poor little merry gentlemen, nourished upon generalizations- and convinced that if his wife does not fit into the category of “a woman” there must be something wrong! Perhaps she resents being dumped into the same category as all the typical women of the comic stories.”