Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee all the best. I'd like to begin today's episode with a

quote which reads, revision, the act of looking back of seeing with fresh eyes is for woman more than a

chapter in cultural history. It is an act of survival.

Until we understand the assumptions in which we are drenched,

we cannot know ourselves.

This quote comes from author Adrian Rich,

who listeners might recognize as a trailblazing feminist poet and essayist

and an icon of the 1970s and beyond

whose work to raise feminist consciousness continues to resonate with us today.

And so it may come as some surprise to know that for much of her life, Rich hadn't yet developed

this empowered understanding of herself and other women.

Adrian Rich grew up within a rigidly patriarchal society and family,

a world in which her duty was to be an obedient daughter,

and someday a well-mannered wife and mother.

In fact, Rich was so inundated with the ideologies of patriarchy

that in the early 50s,

she wrote of how she, quote, pitied old maids, damned sterile feminism, and saw in marriage

the frame for her whole conception of life, end quote. With that mindset so deeply ingrained, Rich soon found herself in a marriage where her husband's

work was considered the important work of the family, and she remained home raising three children.

Looking back on this time years later, Rich described herself as sleepwalking, waking up with a child before dawn each day

and toiling with the endless domestic tasks of cooking, cleaning, and parenting.

She had little time or energy to write.

...