In her essay, Lauren Onkey reveals how colonialism and nationalism victimized women in the past. Traditionally, women are considered inferior and weaker while men are superior and powerful. This sexist characterization of gender is based on the assumption of sexual domination. During the period of colonization, the colonial power deliberately described the colonies as feminine “to justify its ‘civilizing’ mission” (160). Since then, women have become the symbol and property of the nation. The nation then assumes the right to “supervise” its behavior. Richard Kearney suggests “the symbol of woman as a nation as a somewhat benevolent response to colonial conquest” (160). The “elevation” of women as symbols and property of the nation is problematic, at least for women, because it makes self-determination inapplicable to women. In Ireland specifically, women's issues are seen as insignificant compared to the more important issues of nationalism. The Field Day group, supposedly "rethinking ideas about nation, literature, politics and culture", failed to include women's issues on its agenda. Onkey argues that Field Day simply ignores creative works produced by women and that themes of women, sexuality, and gender are absent from most literary discourse. Women writers are also marginalized since “of more than 300 writers spanning 1,500 years, only 39 are women” (162). Onkey also believes that Brian Friel's Translations – Field Day's first theater production – has been misinterpreted by most critics as being largely about colonialism. and nationalism. Critics rarely mention women's issues which are central to the play. Onkey disagrees with most critics who interpret the female characters – Maire and Sarah – exclusively on the basis of a nationalist view... middle of paper ...... what happens and why problems are ignored. I would present literary analysis statistics relevant to feminist issues and draw a conclusion based on the data. In addition to this, I would compare Onkey's interpretation of the play with other critics' interpretation and criticize them to strengthen Onkey's point of view. In conclusion, Onkey's disagreement about the lack of attention given to women's issues in most literary analysis, particularly in the Brian Friel Translations, is well founded. Additionally, I completely agree with her that translations should not be viewed solely from a nationalist perspective. Although it is obvious that the British colonization of Ireland and cultural erosion inspired Friel to produce the play, the main theme of Translations seems to be the misinterpretation of woman as a symbol of the nation, in due to the scale and significance of the problem..