Empowerment Through Shifting Agents: The Rhetoric of the Clothesline Project

Until late in the 20th century, rhetoric was the domain of men and verbal words. Denied access to standard channels of public communication, women often resorted to covert forms of persuasion to effect change in the public atmosphere. For example, during the early days of the Suffrage movement, women would embroider pro-Women’s Rights messages into the parasols displayed in public (Parker, 1989, p. 198). At the close of the last century women still resorted to displays deemed “appropriate” to their gender.