At the time, American people were going off to fight an unpopular and interminable war in Iraq. It seems like that gave readers a sense of wanting to stay home to a stable life like they had pre 9/11, rather than get blown up halfway across the world for poorly explained reasons by the people electing to commit their nations to this war.

To me there seemed to be less emphasis on the gender roles and more on the raw separation: husbands from wives, wives from husbands, parents from children, etc. Troops had no idea how long they would be gone for, whether or not their stay would be extended, or if they would be able to come home at all.