How are women portrayed in "Lives of Girls and Women"?

On the whole, Lives of Girls and Women is about finding one's place in life. Del Jordan is seeking, as do all young people, to find a place where she can fit in. She rebels against many of the social constraints imposed by small-town life and the assumed path that women will take in life. She wants it all, to be loved, accepted and famous all at the same time.

Del escapes into various other universes, such as Benny's house, the library, the fictitious worlds in the books she writes and the worlds she creates through her own writing. She differentiates between these worlds by imagining them to be residing alongside one another. When she goes over to Benny's house, she instantly feels transported to another world. His world isn't the neat, orderly world in which she lives, only minutes away. She will not bring the newspapers she reads at Benny's house home, preferring instead to keep the worlds separate.