Why do our lot never admit failure?

There's a passage that I've been pondering, and I wanted to bring it up in class though I wasn't exactly sure how to. It popped into my head as we discussed the title of the section, "Free Women." It's essentially most of page 51, starting with Anna's description of Molly and her tendency to dismiss failures as though they are insignificant. Then, the last paragraph on the page: "Why do our lot never admit failure? Never. It might be better for us if we did. And it's not only love and men...we have to admit that the great dream has faded and the truth is something else."

Molly dismisses this by saying her rant is all because of Michael-- but is that true? Where is this exactly coming from? Does Anna wish that her relationship had succeeded? Prior to this moment, I feel that there's quite a bit of convincing (too strong?) themselves that they are indeed free. They bring up the fact multiple times. If they don't actually believe they're currently free, then what does freedom entail? I say this interpreting that their current notion of "freedom" may actually be a failure. So what might this "something else" truth be? The novel doesn't seem to suggest that it's a man--after all, Anna does say that "it's not only love and men." I'm wondering what the missing piece of the puzzle may be.

I've also been on the road all day and am exhausted, I hope all that made sense.