Men explain things to me, and other women, whether or not they know what they’re talking about. Some men.
-- Rebecca Solnit (chapter 1 paragraph 12)

Importance: It was her experience that men feel they are superior to women and feel the need to “explain things” to women. Not all men are like that but many are.

Violence is one way to silence people, to deny their voice and their credibility, to assert your right to control over their right to exist.
-- Rebecca Solnit (chapter 1 paragraph 19)

Importance: Rebecca Solnit is referring to men who keep their wives silent with threat of violence. Men like this want to control women and are not concerned with stripping fundamental rights away from the women they are supposed to love.

Violence doesn’t have a race, a class, a religion, or a nationality, but it does have a gender.
-- Rebecca Solnit (chapter 2 paragraph 5)

Importance: Rebecca points out that violence against women is a worldwide problem that knows no pattern. Every woman...