How we cite our quotes: (Part.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Whileaway doesn't have true cities. And of course, the tail of a culture is several centuries behind the head. Whileaway is so pastoral that at times one wonders whether the ultimate sophistication may not take us all back to a kind of pre-Paleolithic dawn age, a garden without any artifacts except for what we would call miracles. (1.8.3)
Whileaway is a world of hovercrafts and advanced genetic engineering, but it is also a world of deep forests and sprawling farmlands. Whileawayans seem to have struck a perfect balance between technological progress and ecological sustainability—so much so that they seem well on their way to creating a new Garden of Eden.
Quote #2
"I went hiking last vacation," she said, big-eyed. "That's what I like. It's healthy."
I know it's supposed to be virtuous to run healthily through fields of flowers, but I like bars, hotels, air-conditioning, good restaurants, and jet transport, and I told her so.
"Jet?" she said. (1.7.3-5)
This brief conversation is our first important clue that Jeannine's America is far less technologically advanced than Joanna's. It would be impossible for a New Yorker like Jeannine not to know what a jet was if they existed at all in her world, and so we should assume that they don't.
Quote #3
The first thing said by the second man ever to visit Whileaway was, "Where are all the men?" Janet Evason, appearing in the Pentagon, hands in her pockets, feet planted far apart, said, "Where the dickens are all the women?" (1.7.7)
Joanna's America is a nation run entirely by men. By juxtaposing it with Whileaway, a world run entirely by women, The Female Man doesn't just flip America's reality on its head. The novel emphasizes one crucial difference between Joanna and Janet's worlds: on Whileaway, men no longer exist, and so it is no surprise that women run everything. However, on Joanna's Earth, women exist, but are deliberately barred from positions of power.