Secondariness happens in people's heads and is expressed every time we do not speak, every time we assume no one would listen. It is located in structure in which both sexes are tragically trapped. It is only women who can dissolve the assumptions. It is only women who can say what they feel because the experience is unique to them.

Only women can define themselves. To define yourself you have to explore yourself. It is only by understanding your situation as a group that you can relate it to the system through which you are dominated. This means a certain withdrawal into the group, and a realization on the part of the elite of a common identity.

The privileged woman has to extend beyond her limited consciousness to learn the extent of her common condition with underprivileged women. Only then can women really challenge the external definitions imposed on them, and become sufficiently aware and united to be able to act together.

THE ENEMY is not defined as men only; the ally is not the woman who supports and benefits from capitalism. It is, rather, all people who are being crushed and twisted and want space and air and time to sit in the sun.

But the oppressed have to discover their own dignity, strength, and freedom. They have to liberate themselves. Only then can they liberate their oppressors.