Without husbands women have to focus on earning more. They work longer hours they're willing to relocate and they're more likely to choose higher-paying fields like technology.
I lost my mother who suffered from Alzheimer's disease and we had to relocate my dad after 58 years in the family home. That was tough.
Even in a gleefully negative comic there is optimism although it's slightly hidden: It comes out through a comic character's sheer tenacity. He keeps going and trying to find some sort of fulfillment regardless of his perpetual failure record. That's a form of hope a form of optimism. Really hokey I know but it's true.