Iheard echoes of the problem in college dormitories and semiprivate maternity wards, at pta meetings and luncheons of the league of women voters, at suburban cocktail parties, in station wagons waiting for trains, and in snatches of conversation overheard at schrafft’s. the groping words i heard from other women, on quiet afternoons when children were at school or on quiet evenings when husbands worked late, i think i understood first as a woman long before i understood their larger social and psychological implications.