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contradictory to everything that women have been educated to be. While it is crucially important and also useful to recognize the role that male-dominated sexist society plays in creating women's oppression, it is counterproductive, and ultimately impeding to support women in continually indulging in the role of the victimised. This results simply in perpetuating victimization and oppression. Each woman needs to experience her ability to make that transition from being powerless and victimised to being powerful and supportive, of her own, and other women's growth toward strength, and thus also truly recognize the importance of women's transition as a class. It is the supporting of women's growth, of women's ability to implement their potential, develop their work and leadership, and exercise those in the world, which is at the heart of feminist education. The first stage of counteracting the effects of role conditioning -- which I described at the beginning of this article -- leads to this second step.)

By the end of the first year at the F.S.W. the women have gone through the process and are in various stages of being "through it" and having emerged from it, to one degree or another, being stronger, and knowing from their own personal experience what it is all about. The women who return for their second year of feminist education at the F.S.W. are most likely to complete this process successfully. During the second year they are able to devote the good majority of their energies to the development of their work, as well as to play an important role in facilitating the progress of the first year students through this painful process. It is easier for the women who are in their first year at F.S.W. to listen to their peers' experience -- women who have moved through it more