The characters’ attitudes toward women’s professional livelihood speaks to the misogyny of the era and to women’s radically limited social and economic freedom at the time. Suzanne describes marriage as being still the only really satisfactory job for a woman, but it is not the only employment available; she also alludes to possibilities of being an actress or a sex worker, suggesting that these two options are at least more interesting than, say, secretarial work.

The author touches more than once, directly and indirectly, on the idea of sex work, in the most basic sense of women being obligated (or expected) to supply sex as payment for a man’s custody or financial provision. For example, Larry mentions a woman in Spain who offered sex as payment for his help. Suzanne herself provides sexual companionship and housekeeping as compensation for room and board with artists. Maugham narrates a scene with a sex worker in the café where he and Larry sit talking through the night. In a scene symbolizing women’s abject and internalized subjugation, the worker’s procurer strikes her, and, when others intervene, she insists to them that she deserved the punishment.

A wealthier woman might be kept by one particular man to serve as a companion when he was away from his wife, as Suzanne’s final lover does.