Edward Hopper has an interesting relationship to women. He marries Josephine Nivison in 1924. The two of them fought like cats and dogs, however he still used her as his muse for most of his work, including The Woman in the Sun. FemBio, a website that records biographies for influential women, describes their marriage as Josephine's "one huge mistake in her life." With this marriage, Josephine lost everything. She herself was an artist, losing everything she worked for to her husband's shadow to be his support system. She reportedly lost friends and joy for life however she never left him. He expected her to be the ideal housewife, something that was still chiefly a norm in the time. By most accounts, this relationship would be considered abusive. When you consider the idea that The Woman in the Sun is Josephine herself, there is two huge influences that their marriage has on the painting. 

First, it is reported that their sex life was "sheer horror" consisting of rape and unwanted anal sex. The nude painting of a woman who has experienced unwanted sexual encounters has an entirely different contextual meaning when knowing this. The woman is stripped of clothing, almost similar into the way that one would be stripped of potentially her dignity with the unwanted sexual contact. Josephine experienced something no one should have to ever experience in the state of dress that she is painted in here, and here again bends for the sexual desires of the person painting it, whether she’s willing to participate. 

However, it is interesting to note that although she never described her sexual life with Edward with great words, she was willing to give him everything. Be it her career as an artist, her virginity and everything that he wanted from her. We almost see this reflected back at her within The Woman in the Sun, as she gives her all to this light, both metaphorically in the way she shows off to the outpouring of light in the scene and literaly in the way that she gives up everything for Edward to be successful and happy, not stopping to think about herself. The same blog, FemBio, says "Nivison loved the monster Hopper to the end." She truly gave everything to him no matter his hostility. She is the woman who gives her all to this "light" that is shown disconnected to her, a reflection of the relationship they shared.