This was a question raised by the 19th century male theorists to silence those who argued for women's writing. In the male centred western culture, the author is considered as a father. For him, the pen is an instrument of generative power like the penis. Out of this prejudiced concept, they argue that women lack the power and instrument for literary creation. The argument goes like this: The author is the father of a text. No woman can be a father so a woman cannot be an author.
Feminists respond to this conclusion by rejecting the fundamental analogy of the Author/Father. On the other hand women generate texts from the brain, they would say. It can also be the word processor, with its microchips, inputs and outputs. And the whole thing seems like a metaphorical womb. Instead of the image of literary paternity, images of literary maternity predominated the 18th 19th centuries. They started to view the author more as a mother than as a father. Showalter says that by analogy, the process of literary creation is more similar to gestation, labour and delivery than insemination. Showalter rewrites the earlier question like this:
"If to write is metaphorically to give birth, from what organ can males generate texts"?
