An examination into women's art, specifically naive and unstylized poetry led the author to question the motivational factors for the pervasive inner space and central core imagery. These images and metaphors in women's poetry seem to illuminate the existence of a bodily schema for productive inner space which goes beyond maternal/reproductive functions.

It is hypothesized that women's early experiences of inner space seem to contribute to the construction of a category of experience, like phallic activity and its representations, which serve as structures of knowing and creating the world. It is suggested that these symbolic images are connected with biological origins and provide a base for a mode of cognition that is available to women through appropriate analytic and environmental stimulation.