The point Altman was trying to make
The movie wasn't anti-woman (as another thread suggested). It was a message to women to follow their heart instead of simply following the expectations that society has of them. Helen Hunt's character exemplified this rather obviously. She was a strong independent woman, who became one of the top golfers in the world, simply by following her dreams. She stopped playing when she got bored with it, despite the expectations that everyone had. The marriage plot drove the point through rather strongly as well. Kate Hudson's character was about to do everything that was expected of her, but she broke free and decided to follow her heart instead. We could even see her budding independence in the cheer leader class when she decided to take the phone call.
Most other women in the movie were afraid, and strongly dependent on a man (or men in general, as Altman was trying to convey), and because of this they accomplished nothing. The 60-something women organisations that worked so hard on such a pointless aspiration of getting a freeway named after an influencial woman, was an example of the low aspirations these women had. That they even had such difficulties coming up with examples of influencial women was pure irony.
That said, I found the movie boring as hell. But realizing Altman's point with it, and that nothing in the movie was as random as it first seemed to me, makes me consider rating it 3 instead of 1.
Peter