Like a third of women in the postwar years, mother and daughter fended for themselves.
--Francine du Plessix Gray, Soviet Women

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Woman
Wasn't your mother a woman? Who took care of you in your house, a man?

Idiots!

Why do you vomit insults, screaming "woman, woman!" What special virtue is there in a son or perdition in a daughter?

Here and in the other world happiness comes to a person, not a gender. A crude man is nothing. A noble daughter is blessed forever.
--Honnamma (17th Century), A Book of Women Poets


Very whitely still
The lilies of our lives may reassure
Their blossoms from the roots, accessible
Alone to heavenly dews that drop no fewer
---Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese

it's knock-kneed mini-skirted
wig wearing died blond mama's scar
born dead my scorn your whore
rough heeled broken nailed powdered
face me
whose whole life is tied
up to unhappiness
cause it's the only
for real thing
i
know
--Nikki Giovanni, Woman Poem


Woman Dreams


Once she was alone, the girl spat medicine in the direction of the hostile tribe and in this way, with no assistance, killed off all their enemies. She gave a war whoop, at which all the young men emerged from their tents. ``I fought a big battle and killed them all," she announced. "Now I will go to the dead and cut off their ears, every one, and take their shields, bows and arrows, and war clubs." She did, and took their scalps too. When the war party returned home with the scalps, the grateful chief picked out a young warrior to escort her back to her home, but she refused a guard and asked only for a good horse.
--Elsie Clew Parsons, American Indian Myths and Legends

[Real Audio] Hear "Big Green Moons" in Real Audio.

They differed with me over what time we are living in; It is not democracy when a man can talk about politics without anyone threatening him; Democracy is when a woman can talk of her lover without anyone killing her.
--Sheikha Dr. Souad M. Al-Sabah in Price of Honor


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