Whileaway, the all female utopia in “When It Changed,” offers the women a society with no gender boundaries. The female colony was created when a plague killed all men six centuries earlier. Using a method of reproduction involving the merging of two ova, which results in female children with a mixture of genes from both mothers, allowing the women-only society to flourish (Wahlstrom 521). In their female perfect society, masculine and feminine work is distribute equally amongst the women, without negative gender biases until the men of Earth arrive at Whileaway to “perfect” the female society with men. After a confrontation, the women know that it will only be a limited amount of time before the men take over the colony of Whileaway.Janet, the narrator in “When It Changed”, can be classified as the “feminine” female in her lesbian marriage with Katy, but she also has “masculine“ characteristics. She worries about her wife and her daughters and she does not understand cars. “... I am afraid of far, far too much. I’m getting old...” (Russ 345). Her worries could easily classify her as a “typical women” in today’s society. Janet worries that everything that has been worked for to create their perfect Whileaway will be destroyed when the men take over (Wahlstrom 522). But contrary to Janet’s overly feminine character, she handles guns and owns a rifle, which would be classified as a manly activity. “I reached down next to me where we bolt the carrier panel to the door and eased my rifle into my lap” (Russ 345). Although she worries and acts like the classic female, she still handles and owns a rifle. This crossing of genders is what Whileaway is based on. They hold no gender barriers, they equally distribute all tasks and characteristics. There are no “male” or “female” jobs, and Janet ...
