I really enjoyed Anzia Yezierska’s book Bread Givers. The storyline was so raw and real and I felt that the struggles presented in the story of immigrant women were true for every ethnicity during that time. Before beginning the actual story I read Alice Kessler Harris’ introduction, and one particular sentence that stood out to me was when Yezierska’s daughter was reminiscing about her mother and said: “It was not so much that she was a feminist…she was just herself.” I’m glad she said this because I don’t think we can simply label Yezierska as a feminist. The same goes for the main character in the book, Sara Smolinsky. In the book through her experiences and struggles, she took on everything and set mottos that she lived by. Don’t settle for less, be independent, etc. These beliefs were the products of her experiences and in the end she was who she was, and I realized how much I hate the word feminist. I feel like every woman who has fought for herself and paved the way for a better life were just being themselves, and doing what they had to do to become their own person. They were who they were and hate that they are labeled feminists. Anzia Yezierska is Anzia Yezierska. Yes, a woman going to college and getting a job was unheard of and women had to fight for that right so it constituted for a new movement, the feminist movement, but I don’t like it when the word is used in this day in age. It reminds me of a time when women weren’t treated as equals. It generalizes in a way that I feel doesn’t give enough credit to who these women actually were. They were ahead of their time, they weren’t fighting for women’s right because they knew they already had them.