[In Reinventing Womanhood] Heilbrun is angry at her colleagues' refusal to help those women who struggle to change male thought and institutions in a serious way. Recognizing their pain and anxiety, she nonetheless urges them to remain outsiders rather than scurrying for a safe place at the male center, to "bond with the powerless against those in power."… Yet angry as she is, Heilbrun respects the sheer fact of female achievement and studies the lives of distinguished women in order to identify the conditions of their success….

Heilbrun urges all women, whether or not they count themselves achievers, to admit their own and other women's pain. A woman-identified, raised consciousness is necessary for the "reinvention of womanhood" that Heilbrun envisions. The courage to seek this consciousness without self-deception or denial is a necessary step to independent strength and collective action. But this first step leads only to despair...