Abstract
Carol Lee Flinders outlines four critical stress points in her book At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst. Silence, self-naughting, redirecting desires and enclosure, are, according to Flinders, already being imposed upon women by society. These four critical stress points work as a lens to view the way that women in this paper subvert the imposition by society. Christine de Pizan, a writer from the High Middle Ages, was one such woman who subverted and actively used her voice to promote a protofeminist agenda. Christine and the women she wrote about laid the groundwork for women of modern times to use their voice to promote a more feminine-centric approach. Holly Whitaker and Laura McKowen are two such women who have done so. Whitaker uses her book Quit Like a Woman to criticize the current prominent recovery offering of Alcoholics Anonymous and provides an alternative feminine-centric approach. McKowen offers an alternative program that incorporates Whitaker’s six elements to a feminine-centric recovery paradigm. Flinders’ critical stress points help to illustrate how women use their inner voice to overcome the imposition of society.