Can someone please help me out with the meaning of this dense quote?

Question

"Women are no longer to be seen as floating in a man’s world but as a coherent group, a context in themselves,” she goes on and further states, “The problem is that the issues and problems women define from the inside as global, men treat from the outside as insular”

Answer 1

Women are now perceived as a group that has issues and opinions separate from a man's issues.  They are no longer viewed as simply "yes-(wo)men" who agree with everything the men tell them.  

The problem is that the same issues that women believe are important to everybody, men believe are only important to women.  

For example:  Breast cancer is viewed by women as something that affects everybody because if a woman has breast cancer it impacts the husband, the children and everybody else in this woman's life.  The speaker is saying that men would view breast cancer as simply a "woman's issue"

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Other than one of those high-falutin' put downs of men?

Basically the speaker is saying that women have come into their own, they have status in society.  In the past, when you walked into an office setting, the women were receptionists and secretaries -- probably single and expected to leave work once they married.  It was very rare to see a woman in charge.  The wives were "arm candy" expected to keep the home together while the husbands had all the "fun" of working in the corporate world.

I am having trouble with the second half of the quote - it is like a word is missing.  But essentially, women tend to internalize things more, and men have a more external attitude.  (This is basic -- the s*x act for a woman is internal, for a man it is external.)  Sounds like the speaker is saying women are applying their internal definitions and understandings to situations outside themselves, while men are narrow-minded.

Answer 3

First part obviously meaning men and women are now equals, rather than women existing for the sole purpose to serve man...

Second part meaning men often see womens problems, issues, concerns as simple, unimportant things, when in fact, they are every bit as important as the problems and issues men have.  

That is my take on it, hope it helps...