A Rhetorical Analysis Of Rossum And Sheryl Sandberg

Emmy Rossum and Sheryl Sandberg are two prominent women in the Western world today. Rossum most notable for her starring role in the television show Shameless and Sandberg for her work in the social media community, pioneering work done in Facebook and being their first woman COO. In this piece I’m going to compare an Interview Rossum did with Chelsea Handler on her show Chelsea, and the book written by Sandburg titled Lean In. I will be analysing how Rossum and Sandberg use rhetorical factors to build their ethos and fight for women’s rights.
Rossum’s episode aired in 2016 during a difficult election cycle in the United States. Trump, a president elect and now the current president, was fueling debate with his anti immigration propaganda
To start of she says that “Of 197 heads of state, only 22 are women.Of the top 500 companies by revenues, only 21 are headed by women. In politics, women hold just 18% of congressional offices.” She comes to the conclusion that this is a world run by men and that if women don’t jump for more high level positions the world will always be run by men. She blames a lot of this on the fact that women often don’t go for that promotion or for something ambitious because they feel like they will be hindered by their family or they are insecure they won’t do the work as well as someone else could do the work. For the women that do ask for what they want Sandberg reports that “thirty percent of women said they'd received feedback that they were "bossy" or "aggressive" vs. 23% of men.” Women are told to be a certain way and act a certain way and when they try to reach for what they want they are often judged and outnumbered. This statistic will be a reality check for men on some level because this is a social norm that is not a conscious thought. Sandberg gives a statistic about being promoted to manager and says that “for every 100 women who are promoted to that title, 130 men receive the same bump”. Through this analytical lense she reaches out to an audience that is professional and important in the business world. Her vast knowledge of this issue benefits her ethos undeniably. Her overall message is once there are more women in the higher up positions it opens up the possibility for further equality, because a women in charge would be more attuned to the gender issues that occur in the workplace. Sandberg specifically mentions parking and closer spots for the expecting mothers. This is something that might not have been thought of by someone who hasn’t experienced pregnancy before or thinks about it in the workplace. Sandberg highlights