inist women speak for the poor when they really have no idea what it is like for the poor; they speak for the women when they have no idea what the average American women believes. Feminist are not realizing that “any attempt to lump the lives of very different women under a single formula—any formula—is likely to exclude more women than it includes.” It is no wonder why men and women feel they have been put on a battlefield and why women often feel they have no control over their lives. Modern poets, such as Elizabeth McKim, express their feelings of defeat on being women: i have always beena lonely woman even in the beginningnot understanding the language of men always wanting them to see me always hiding from them hoping they will not crush me with their anger trying to make them smilewith my masks and my veils my dancing costumesmy magic and my bells so thy would stop scaring me so they would fall asleep so I could take their power Many women can relate to the feelings of powerlessness. It is not productive to blame men for these barriers; however, no one is without blame. Many women, however, do not feel helpless. In one of Fox-Genovese’s interviews with women, she writes of Maggie, who moved, with her husband, to a ranch in New Mexico. They split the work “traditionally” and Maggie was not enjoying her job. She discussed the situation with her husband who understood her dislike for the monotonous work. She joined him and the other male hands in the fields; she now loved her job. She stated she is not a feminist; that it “has nothing to with her life, and feminists… would not last two days on her ranch.” How and when th...
