She wrote in her Introduction to the 2003 edition of this book, "a long time ago, I believed that all women were kind, caring, maternal, valiant, and ever-noble under siege---and that all men were their oppressors. As everyone but a handful of idealistic feminists knew, this was not always true… like men, women are really human beings, as close to the apes as to the angels, capable of both cruelty and compassion, envy and generosity, competition and cooperation… Psychologically, seemingly contradictory things can be true. Women compete mainly against other women and women mainly rely upon other women; women envy and sabotage each other through slander, gossip, and shunning, and women also want other women's respect and support… In addition, women, like men, have internalized sexist beliefs… We tend not to forgive women when they fail us. We tend to have more compassion for male failure or imperfection. I know this now but… I clung to my original view of women as perfect victims. Why? Because women are both oppressed and maligned and I did not want to expose us to any further harm. Because it was---and still is---problematic, even dangerous, to challenge the politically correct feminist view of women as morally superior…" (Pg. ix-xi)
