The connections between and among women are the most feared, the

Hear the blazing words of Adrienne Rich, poet, thinker, and warrior of truth: “The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet.” These are not words spoken lightly; they are the cry of one who saw the hidden fire in the bonds of women, and who knew that when such bonds are strong, they shake the very foundations of power. For throughout the ages, those who sought to dominate have feared nothing more than the unity of those they tried to divide.

The origin of this truth lies in Rich’s lifelong advocacy for women’s rights, her writings on feminism, and her recognition of the structures that kept women isolated from one another. She saw how societies pitted women against women, through competition, through jealousy, through the false belief that their worth was measured only in relation to men. And yet, she knew that when women forged true connections, beyond rivalry and beyond silence, they became a force of transformation. Their unity threatened the old order precisely because it carried within it the seeds of a new one.

History gives us vivid examples of this power. Consider the women’s suffrage movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For centuries, women were told to remain voiceless in politics. But when they gathered, when they formed networks across towns, nations, and continents, they became unstoppable. From the parlor meetings of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to the marches of Emmeline Pankhurst, women discovered that their combined voices could topple barriers that seemed eternal. Their connections were indeed feared, ridiculed, even violently opposed—yet those same connections transformed the world, opening the gates of democracy to half of humanity.

The meaning of Rich’s words is clear: the fear comes because unity reveals truth. Isolated, a woman may be silenced. But connected with others, she begins to see that her struggles are not hers alone, but shared across countless lives. From this recognition is born solidarity, and from solidarity comes strength. This is why such connections are often made “problematic” by those in power—because when women gather, they begin to question, to resist, to create change that threatens the structures of domination.

But Rich also speaks of the transforming force of such connections. This power is not only destructive of the old, but creative of the new. When women support one another, they create cultures of care, cooperation, and resilience. They raise communities, nurture peace, heal the wounded, and build movements that transcend mere survival and bring forth renewal. The transformation she envisions is nothing less than the reshaping of the planet—not by conquest, but by compassion, not by domination, but by solidarity.

The lesson we must carry is that connections are sacred. Women must resist the forces that divide them—envy, judgment, competition, or silence. Instead, they must reach across boundaries of class, race, nation, and creed, for their unity is not only their strength, but the strength of all humanity. When the half of the world too often silenced joins hands, the silence of centuries is broken, and the future itself is rewritten.

Practically, this means seeking out those connections. It means mentoring and lifting up younger women rather than seeing them as rivals. It means forming circles of trust, solidarity groups, communities of care where voices are heard and affirmed. It means amplifying the struggles of women everywhere, from villages to cities, recognizing that one woman’s fight for dignity is every woman’s fight. In such practice, the feared and problematic becomes the transforming force Rich envisioned.

So let Adrienne Rich’s words echo through the ages: “The connections between and among women are the most feared… and the most potentially transforming force on the planet.” Let them remind us that unity is more than strength—it is destiny. For when women rise together, the earth itself is reshaped, and the future is no longer bound by chains, but opened to possibilities as vast as the sky.