In this modern, westerly-fixated era, issues regarding gender are seen, by vast proportions of the population, as antiquated. Carol Ann Duffy serves to tackle this notion by using poetry as a window into the deeply personal experience of the contemporary woman. Throughout her texts, strains emerge of futility, depression and disempowerment felt by much of the female demographic during day-to-day existence. Duffy looks into aspects of motherhood, what it means to be a ‘woman’ and ultimately the consequences that gender expectations have on the psychological health of women in order to paint a picture of female marginalisation in the world today.

By first examining the titles of each of the three poems, we may gain a more comprehensive understanding of what Carol Ann Duffy is attempting to convey before examining the full textual body. ‘Whoever She Was’ captures the solemn echo of the narrators plight. The past tense acts to separate her current being from ‘Whoever’ she was when her children were young and she had motherly duties to tend to. The blasé use of ‘Whoever’ may at first convey to us that she does not show remorse to the changes she has undergone since her children left. When considered with the context of the poem and her fixation on the past, however, it becomes evident that ‘whoever’ and indeed the third person, ‘she’ is used to accent the gulf between her present state and that of her motherly role. ‘Recognition’, as a title, serves to place the unattainable on a pedestal. The narrator identifies the shortcomings and severe mundanity that has become intrinsic to her life and now only wants ‘recognition’ for it. This is indeed the unattainable due to the patriarchal society she dwells in. A man cannot understand exactly what a woman goes through and she knows it. Lastly, we have ‘Standing Female Nude’, a title that mimics the overriding