I think this story is a very interesting take on discrimination against women! Don can't understand for the life of him how these two women, Ruth & Althea Parsons, could be so calm. It doesn't seem to alarm them that they are stranded in the middle of nowhere with no guarantee of a rescue. But Ruth & Althea Parsons had a plan of their own.
Judging by her preparatory actions, Ruth had a pretty good idea that they were likely to encounter aliens in that part of Mexico. The story mentions that her and Althea were taking a pretty round-about way to get to their destination, leading one to believe that there was an ulterior motive. It also mentions that she worked for the government, so perhaps she had gained some sort of intellect in regards to alien sightings in the area.
Ruth and Althea were awfully adament in their belief that females will forever be unequal to men. Adament enough to risk venturing into the unknown in the hope of finding something better than life on Earth as a woman.
Im wondering about the intended message of the story. My thought is that it's implying that although we have come a long way, gender equality will never be 100% present. These two women in particular felt it necessary to take their chances on leaving this earth for a planet that may be more geared towards equal opportunities for all genders.
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I think your totally right on this one. It's all about women as unequals. Only way out in these women's case was going to alien-land. I read this ending as a funny version of Kate Chopin's "The Awakening"
Maybe Ruth and Althea will go away and start another Whileaway...
As I mentioned in my blog post on this week's stories(which i finally have up)it really bothers me how closed minded the man is in this story. He is just baffled that these women are not falling apart.
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