Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution

The pathbreaking investigation into motherhood and womanhood from an influential and enduring feminist voice, now for a new generation.In Of Woman Born, originally published in 1976, influential poet and feminist Adrienne Rich examines the patriarchic systems and political institutions that define motherhood. Exploring her own experienceas a woman, a poet, a feminist, and a mothershe finds the act of mothering to be both determined by and distinct from the institution of motherhood as it is imposed on all women everywhere. A powerful blend of research, theory, and self-reflection (Sandra M. Gilbert, Paris Review), Of Woman Born revolutionized how women thought about motherhood and their own liberation. With a stirring new foreword from National Book Critics Circle Awardwinning writer Eula Biss, the book resounds with as much wisdom and insight today as when it was first written.