Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
The Night Women are hallucinations that visit Jade when she is staying at Son's aunt's house in Eloe, Florida. Most of these women are from Eloe, but one of them is an African woman she once saw in a Paris grocery store. At one point, the Night Women crowd about Jade and uncover their breasts.
The night women represent the kind of person Jade would turn into if she settled for the traditional rural life that she would live if she stayed in Eloe with Son. Son doesn't care for Jade's ambition or her education. He (like the rest of the people in Eloe) would be happy for her to settle into a traditional female role. The bared breasts of the Night Women are symbolic of the two roles for women in Eloe: wife and mother.
As Jade thinks at one point: "the night women […] wanted her to settle for wifely competence when she could be almighty, to settle for fertility rather than originality, nurturing instead of building" (9.287).
Jade wants something more than a quiet life in the country. She has huge plans to travel, get rich, and basically conquer the world. Jade would never have had these ambitions if Valerian hadn't foot the bill and sent her to the Sorbonne. Because Valerian bankrolled the experience that led Jade to have these ambitions, her ambitions are forever associated with rich white men.
Because of this association, Jade always feels a tinge of guilt about not wanting to belong to Son's world: "No matter what you did, the diaspora mothers with pumping breasts would impugn your character. And an African woman […] could discredit your elements" (10.180). In other words, Jade feels that the Night Women are criticizing her for embracing the capitalistic, individualistic values of "white culture." She eventually overcomes this guilt and sets off to lead the life she wants, but it's unclear if this decision is a good one.