What is the relationship between women in the novel?

Each woman is confronted by her own set of social pressures that impede her sense of autonomy, and make her feel as if she must live her life a certain way. For Susan, this means being the perfect wife and mother, no matter how miserable she may be. She sloughs through years of unhappiness catering to her husband, and staying with him in order to keep her children happy. When she has finally had enough, she begins to recognize her own autonomy again. She realizes that she must, and can, take action in her own life, because "she can't wait her way out, head in the sand. She has to say it herself" (276). This recognition of her own power leads her to push aside the inner voices of her mother, her neighbors, and the ads on TV telling her all children need two parents, and to tell Didier she is leaving him. Ro is faced with the pressure to be like Susan: to have children, and maybe even a partner. She questions whether her desire for a child comes from herself, or is a result of being socialized to believe all women need to experience motherhood. She thinks that "women who worried about ticking clocks were the same women who traded salmon-loaf recipes and asked their husbands to clean the gutters ... then suddenly, she was one of them" (93). Those around her wonder if she needs a romantic partner in her life, and do not believe that she can be happy on her own as a woman.