Maya Angelou's poem "Phenomenal Woman," found in the collection Chicken Soup for a Woman's Soul, celebrates both the spiritual and physical dimensions of black female identity.

Nikki Giovanni's poem "Ego Tripping (There May Be a Reason Why)" (1970), included in The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry edited by Richard Ellman and Robert O'Clair, is another tribute to black female identity.

Judy Grahn's book The Common Woman (1970), which features seven poems about seven "common" women, served as an inspiration for Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.

Mary Daly's provocative text, Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism (Beacon, 1978, Boston), forms the foundation of Shange's feminist perspective, where she seeks to redefine femaleness by creating a new, more affirming language.

In the chapter titled "Beauty and Ethnicity" from Robin Lakoff's book Face Value: The Politics of Beauty (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984), the social stereotypes and implications of black female beauty are examined. Her earlier work, Language and Woman's Place (Octagon, 1976), discusses how standard English perpetuates and reinforces women's lower social status.

Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, while not solely focused on sexism, realistically depicts the differing expectations and constraints faced by black men and women in 1960s Chicago.

Imamu Amiri Baraka's 1972 essay "Black 'Revolutionary' Poets Should Also Be Playwrights," published in Black World (Vol. 21, April 1972, pp. 4-6), outlines his approach to militant black theater as a means to raise awareness about racism.