It is important to be careful to not be overly general when describing the women of the 1950s. As Marilyn French's novel shows, women in the 1950s, like right now, have unique traits, goals, and beliefs.

Does Mira share Val's militant feminism? Does Mira believe that "all men are rapists"? No. More so, does Mira share the prejudices of Bliss or the passionate love affairs of Martha? No.

Yet, it'd be rather obtuse to not see that these women possess similar struggles. How they deal with these issues might differ, yet the source of their predicament seems to be the same: their gender.

We could say women in the 1950s are sexual. They have affairs—sometimes with each other's husbands. They also have well-formed and specific ideas about what they want from sex.

Think about the scene in which Bliss's husband is calling her to bed and Bliss is looking in the mirror. Bliss doesn't want her husband. She wants a man "to own her, to take possession of her."

We also see how women in the 1950s worried about economics. Samantha is in dire financial distress due to her husband. One reason why Adele doesn't divorce her husband is money. We then see Mira calculating her divorce settlement as if her marriage was a form of employment that has just been terminated.

For women in the 1950s, money—as well as sex, children, husbands, and family in general—seemed to be central.