Women

Influenced by the Black women in her own life as well as the role of Black women in society, Walker pens an admiring and appreciative poem in their honor.

The first line directly addresses the “women” (Line 1) of the title from the first-person perspective of the speaker (who could be Walker or an invented persona). She goes on in the second line to define these women as her “mama’s generation” (Line 2). She ascribes traditionally masculine features to the women through aural and visual imagery, stating their voices are “husky” (Line 3) and their movements are “stout” (Line 4). These typically masculine features make this generation of women appear mighty in spirit and in body. The fifth line refers to the women’s “fists” (Line 5), a fighting stance, while the sixth line refers to “hands” (Line 6), which suggest the more delicate, or feminine, version of fists. The poet uses synecdoche—a rhetorical device whereby a part of something refers to its whole—to illuminate the ordinary parts of the women that actually made them heroes.

Lines 7-11 juxtapose the women’s warlike behavior and civic duties with their more domestic obligations. Walker first mentions that the women “battered down / Doors” (Lines 6-7), and then she mentions ironing “Starched white / Shirts” (Lines 10-11). These women, while paving the way for other women, still made time to handle their daily chores. Walker creates the metaphor of the women as army leaders: “How they led / Armies” (Lines 12-13) implies a massive movement rather than individuals working alone. These women ultimately risked their lives to drag “generals / Across mined / Fields” (Lines 14-16). “mined / Fields” (Lines 15-16), as wordplay on “minefields,” suggests a hazardous area of explosives, or a place where poor or enslaved workers had to dig and toil. Women had to fight against a patriarchal society, and Black women, as an extra challenge, also had to fight against racism. The idea of running through fields as well as “Booby-trapped / Ditches” (Lines 17-18) alludes to the slaves who took a chance for freedom.

Walker implies that these women ultimately took all these chances in order “To discover books / Desks / A place for us” (Lines 19-21). This is an example of metonymy, a rhetorical device wherein something refers to, or represents, something else with which it is closely associated. In this case, books and a desk represent education and career opportunities that the speaker’s generation now has, thanks to her mother’s generation’s sacrifices. The last five lines express a paradox that reveals the truth about generational feminism: “How they knew what we / Must know / Without knowing a page / Of it / Themselves” (Lines 22-26). The prior generation did not have the formal educational or career opportunities of the speaker’s generation, but their common sense told them that their daughters would need these opportunities. These women instinctually and collectively knew it was their duty to be the sacrificial generation so the future generations could reap the benefits. The nostalgic beginning of the poem ends with an air of optimism for the present and the future.