Chima Madu Vs. Matt Forney's The Case Against Female Education

Some see the importance of giving girls the same opportunities as boys, and some do not. Matt Forney discusses his views in his article “The Case Against Female Education” where he urges readers to stop women from going to college. In contrast, Chima Madu hopes to sway his audience to support women in his article “Why We Should Support Girls’ Education”. Both works discuss the importance of girl’s education from different points of view and use similar strategies to present their views to their audience. The basis of Madu’s rhetorical strategies are more sound and appealing to the reader and provide a strong support for his argument; while, Forney’s argument is backed by less developed strategies that incite readers but provide no evidence.

By doing this, the audience is emotionally connected because of their want to increase the chance of life for young children. He continues to appeal to the reader by discussing maternal mortality. Even if Madu’s intended audience is only educated men, it would be rare for a man to not desire decreased maternal and infant mortality rates. Children and pregnant mothers are commonly looked at as the most vulnerable in any situation. Madu uses their mortality rates to his advantage to appeal to the readers’ emotions in order to persuade the reader to help these ‘vulnerables’. He continues using the image of a woman distressed to support his argument by discussing domestic and sexual violence. Madu states “Educated girls and women are less likely to be victims of domestic and sexual violence or to tolerate it in their families,” making it hard for the reader to argue that education has a negative effect. Madu proves that emotions can be paired with facts to support his ideas that women should be educated. Surprisingly Madu and Forney both discuss the correlation between sexual violence and girls’ education. Unlike Madu’s beliefs, Forney specifically states “Girls who go to college are extremely likely to get sexually assaulted” in hopes that his readers will be persuaded to stop encouraging women to attend college so that they can help women. Madu quotes an African proverb

Forney constantly states his opinions as facts but does not add sources, or expand on how he came to many conclusions creating logical fallacies. For example, he states “College is problematic because it gives girls the illusion of knowledge” but he does not use facts or psychological evidence or studies to support his claim. Forney does use his personal experience to appeal as logic to his audience by discussing his relationships with women who had not graduated from college. Although it is not stated on Forney’s website, many assume that Forney is writing from a satiric point of view because of the amount of logical fallacies in his writings. Even with multiple questioning about his use of satire, Forney has not publicly clarified if he is writing in satire. With this background information, it is important that the reader knows his lack of credibility while reading his