Women's issues encompass many areas

Sorting out the mixed messages from culture is one part of the work.

According to Mary Pipher in her book Reviving Ophelia, "Girls struggle with mixed messages: Be beautiful, but beauty is only skin deep. Be sexy, but not sexual. Be honest, but don’t hurt anyone’s feelings. Be independent, but be nice. Be smart, but not so smart that you threaten the boys . . .

Girls "have long been evalutated on the basis of appearance and caught in myriad double binds: achieve, but not too much; be polite, but be yourself; be feminine and adult; be aware of our cultural heritage, but don’t comment on the sexism."