“Phenomenal Woman” is a motivational poem that gives the message of confidence and how important it is for women to know that the stereotype of a "perfect woman" is not what makes a phenomenal woman. The poem explains that no matter the standards that women are held to in society, it should not determine her worth. A phenomenal woman believes in herself and is self-confident no matter how she appears to society. Maya Angelou did not always love to write, or even know how. Maya, at the age of seven, went mute for five years because her uncles killed a man who raped her which caused her to feel guilty about his death. While she was mute, she developed a love for writing and got her influence from other black authors such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B Dubois, and William Shakespeare. Due to the circumstances of her childhood, this became her motivation to become the assertive woman who grabbed the attention of all the men even if she was not a supermodel. Angelou published the poem in 1978, but she actually wrote it during the times after the Civil Right 's Movement when women did not have equal rights. In the 1950s she became a part of the Harlem Writers Guild, a group of African-American writers, where she met Martin Luther King, Jr. along with many other influential writers. The Harlem Writers Guild resulted in Maya joining the struggle for civil rights and became the northern coordinator for Dr. King. Maya, being African American struggled with her rights more than white women