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.