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

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]