African-American women writers enable us to envision what it is like to be black and female in a strongly patriarchal society marred by discrimination. How could one's voice be heard in a society where African-Americans had essentially no legacy to express their opinions prior to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's. African-Americans had long struggled to attain political and economic parity with the white majority, but they always found different forms of self-expression to convey the African- American experience. The short stories of Gloria Naylor and Alice Walker enrich the tradition of African-American writers and women writers by providing a yet unknown and different perspective on the lives of black women in the United States.