Women’s fiction focuses on the joys and trials of women’s lives. There is often an emphasis on the friendship between women. Angry Housewives follows the tradition of other works of women’s fiction—it explores the nuanced nature of female friendship, the impact of secrets, Adapting to Loss and Change, romantic relationships and divorce, and illness. Like other works of women’s fiction, Angry Housewives develops distinct female protagonists who act as foils to one another, or opposites who illuminate the other characters through contrasting qualities.

A prevalent trope found in women’s fiction is a narrative that culminates in the death of a beloved character. In Angry Housewives, the friends rally around Slip in the hospital as she dies of terminal cancer. In this way, it is similar to the novel Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah (2008), which explores the bonds between two best friends and ends with the death of one from cancer. It also evokes the novel Beaches by Iris Rainer Dart (1985) and particularly the play Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling (1987), which features an ensemble of female characters.

Women’s fiction has a history of being seen as inferior by academic institutions, and is regularly slighted for prestigious awards.