Family plays an important role in shaping a woman's voice. How she is treated for speaking out at an early age will affect the way she feels speaking in public when she is older. Often times it is very hard for women artists to find their voice as they are growing up. This is due to the family structure which has prevailed for over a century. Women have typically been seen as taking on the responsibilities around the house and only speaking when spoken to. Men, on the other hand, are supposed to be out in the public sphere and even young men are encouraged to voice out their opinions at an early age. Young women, however, are typically reprimanded for speaking their mind. If a woman is to speak her mind or choose to do something other than raise children and clean the house, she becomes looked down upon. This standard makes it especially hard fo

For the woman of color, the language barrier is even greater because the language that they were brought up with and feel comfortable with is frowned upon not only in the literary world but also in society as a whole. In "The Girl Who Wouldn't Sing", Kit Yuen Quan expresses her problems with the language of our society when she says "I get frustrated because I constantly feel I'm being put down for what I'm saying or how I talk". She has struggles with voicing herself and feels that whenever she speaks she is put in the spotlight. Her native language is what connected her to her roots and when this language was discredited through years of mental torture she in a sense began to lose her sense of self-identity.

The family life of a woman artist shapes who she is as a person and where she sees herself in relation to society. She must in most instances go against societal expectations and break the mold of the stereotypical woman. Women of color have even a greater challenge in becoming artists. They must take into account how much of an impact their work will have on the generations of women of color to follow. Often times the woman artist feels that she must set aside her own aspirations to conform to what is expected of her as a woman artist of color. In doing so, she may lose the inspiration which may have once led her to speak her voice in the first place.

Even when young girls are aloud to speak out, there is still an imposed silence. Bell hooks verifies this claim in "Talking Back". She explains that what she experienced growing up in a black community is very different than what a white person experiences. Bell hooks claims that "in black communities...women have not been silent..their voices can be heard"(hooks, 207). However, she goes on to say that although women were aloud to speak their mind, she felt as a child that this speech was "suppressed speech"(hooks, 209). Well, what is the use of being able to spea

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1316
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)