A Rhetoric of Epistemic Privilege: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriot Stanton Blatch, and the Educated Vote

Abstract

Recently, scholars have explored the empowering potential of epistemic privilege, a concept that refers to knowledge acquired through oppression as a privilege. Advancing these conversations, this article considers epistemic privilege as a rhetorical strategy. To explore the strategy’s potential and limits, this article turns to public letters exchanged between suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Harriot Stanton Blatch, in which the mother–daughter pair deliberated over the voting rights of the immigrant and working classes. Through this case study, this article finds that a rhetoric of epistemic privilege can work to empower multiple oppressed groups and yet reify power relationships.