In a preview of what's to come as her book tour hits the TV talk show circuit, Fonda discussed her life and times last month at the "Girls For A Change" conference held at Montana State University.

She began by explaining that she'd spent the last five years working on her memoir, and insisted that her own life story is universal. Even someone who's wealthy, privileged, famous and white can be hurt by the hierarchy's rules in profound ways, Fonda explained.

Before too long the former actress got around to the subject of Kerry's defeat.

In quotes picked up by Bozeman, Montana's Daily Chronicle, she complained: "Men who show compassion or try to make peace are ridiculed as 'girlie men' or, like John Kerry, as wimps."

It's all a part of the patriarchal society we live in, she said, where American boys learn as early as age 5 that they have to earn a place in the hierarchy by being "real men" – not sissies who express emotion.

"We have to feel true empathy for boys," she urged. "Males have the power, but at what cost."

The former Hollywood radical urged girls to be more assertive, saying: "Get mad. It's not the way it has to be. Don't succumb, don't take it sitting down."

The solution, she said, is for girls to realize it's society and not their own flaws that makes them feel anxious and inadequate.

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