I really enjoyed this story. I loved the creeping sense of wrongness as I gradually came to understand what was going on. It was practically a horror story in that sense. But particularly, I loved the way it used the "soft" elements - the relationships and dialogue, all masterfully done - to underline the "hard" brutality of this sexist society. The grocer's story, how she ended up in jail because she broke the law because it was the only way to stay in business, all because she found it fulfilling to do something that society told her was not her "place." Which, of course, mimics the sexism in our society. That's what sexism is - a brutal, uncaring, artificial limit on our humanity, a lie that limits and degrades us all.
I found this story pretty inspiring. I'm working on a fantasy story about a brutally divided sexist society, and I'm thinking of stealing a lot from this story and maybe taking it further. What if men and women had more than just different money - what if the space in their cities were sharply divided, with residences and some public buildings as the only crossover locations? What if they had different languages, with a third, shared language that everyone was fluent in? I'm going to have to chew on this... it's an interesting concept.