"When It Changed" is set on Whileaway, a planet devoid of males. This ideal of a world where women can be free from patriarchal and societal constraints permeates the writings of Russ.

But Whileaway is not another Eden, there is violence and there are difficulties which must be overcome by the inhabitants and the sudden arrival of several males is just one of them.

1. What does the title of this short story mean? Exactly when did it change? When the men arrived or when the men died on the planet?

Exactly what do you think changed and was it for the better?

2. The name of the planet is "Whileaway." Why do you think that the author gave that name to her planet?

3. Russ plays with her readers at the beginning of this story when she describes the narrator's "wife" and later we learn that both partners...