Woman-Izing

The women’s rights movement was gaining ground as I grew into young adulthood. I can recall my mother’s stridency as she tried to assert herself in opposition to her own internalized negative identity as a woman. Her inner tensions left an uneasy legacy for her three daughters, caught between her many strengths and her remarkable ability to subvert herself concerning the demands of her husband and others. Now, I can locate her in relation to the patriarchal turn in Western culture that has led to a valorizing of the male voice, despite repeated calls to attend more carefully to “women’s ways of knowing.” That perspective affords greater clarity as I recognize ways in which I internalized moments in which she failed to stand up for herself or for me.