Women

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1973

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Motherly Sacrifice & Inequity

Walker begins the “Women” poem with “They were women then” (Line 1), nostalgically calling forth the women of the past. She then specifies her “mama’s generation” (Line 2). While men and fathers have also risked their lives, Walker focuses on women’s sacrifices. As shown throughout the poem, women had to perform both traditionally-female and traditionally-male roles, doing double the work: “How they battered down / Doors / And ironed / Starched white / Shirts” (Line 7-11). Black women, in particular, faced double the obstacles of white women, including racism and sexism. Because of this inequity, Black women had to fight even harder to receive similar opportunities as other members of society. Even though they had no resources except their own strength and cognition, Black mothers still made it possible for their daughters to have more than they did. In Walker’s mother’s time, mothers cared for the home, the children, the husband, and outside-the-home work, if economic situations were poor. Walker saw this firsthand with her own mother and again as a single mother of her own daughter once she divorced from her husband. She was fortunately able to use her writing skills to make a living and a name for herself.

Women across centuries have experienced the burden as well as the bond that comes from carrying and then nurturing a child. While there is nothing in the poem itself to suggest its tribute is exclusive to childbearing women, considering that Walker wrote “Women” for her mother, this cross-generational maternal endeavor may be part of what the poet had in mind with the lines, “How they knew what we / Must know” (Lines 22-23). Under this interpretation, many of these women raced “Across mined / Fields” (Lines 15-16) with only the end goal in mind—to secure the well-being of their daughters’ future at any cost: “To discover […] A place for us” (Lines 19, 21).

Ancestral Guidance

Honoring ancestors is a part of many African groups’ traditions, a practice that slaveholders suppressed in their slaves because it did not conform to Western Christian beliefs. Adding to this suppression, slaves had no ancestral records and could not visit or mark their ancestors’ gravesites. In “Women,” Walker immediately invokes her “mama’s generation” (Line 2), recognizing that communication via a poem with her ancestors can effect healing and appeal for positive energy for future generations. The reverence with which Walker crafts her poem recalls first-wave feminists fighting for suffrage and, going even further back in time, recalls slaves toiling in the home and the field. Walker writes, “How they battered down / Doors” (Lines 7-8), suggesting that her own ancestors as well as other non-blood but still culturally familial ancestors paved the way for her to write and publish this homage.

The end of “Women” states “How they knew” (Line 22), implying that her ancestors instantly understood the importance of tradition and guiding the family line through action and persistence. Walker’s generation now had the opportunity to study their past to rectify their present, searching for and calling forth forgotten ancestors for guidance during such challenging times as the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and the resistance to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Value of Education

“Women” culminates in the concept of knowledge. The word “knew” (Line 22) is repeated and tweaked slightly to “know” (Line 23) and again to “knowing” (Line 24). In fact, it is the only major word of the poem that is repeated. Walker compares knowledge of the women of her mother’s generation with that of her own generation: “How they knew what we / Must know / Without knowing a page / Of it / Themselves” (Lines 22-26). These lines show Walker’s admiration for past women’s experiential knowledge. Walker seems to state that if her mother obtained that knowledge without a formal education, then imagine the possibilities if that gift were enhanced with proper schooling.

At the time of the poem’s composition, universities throughout the United States, including Dartmouth, Brown, and Yale, were opening their doors to female applicants. In 1972, Title IX passed, which made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sex in any educational institution that received federal funding. In the same year, there was the first Black woman in the U.S. to receive a doctorate in physics. Because of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, school segregation was unconstitutional, forcing schools to integrate in the 1960s and 1970s, though some schools, especially in the South, resisted this ruling. All these events showed a change in tide for Black women who wanted to pursue education to gain access to fields traditionally available only to their male and white counterparts. This access is what the women in the poem were striving for with all their might.