Yay that's my first solved one! Glad I could help.

Abigail wrote: "I thought I posted in this one awhile back...guess it glitched. Oh, well. This sounds a lot like Game Players of Zan."
Abigail wrote: "I thought I posted in this one awhile back...guess it glitched. Oh, well. This sounds a lot like Game Players of Zan."
SOLVED!

The Game Players of Zan is the book I have been looking for. As soon as I saw the cover I knew it was the one. I'm thrilled that you were able to find it for me, especially considering my very bad description.

A big thanks everyone who responded to my inquiry. Not only did I find the book I was looking for, I also have several others I now want to read.

I thought I posted in this one awhile back...guess it glitched. Oh, well. This sounds a lot like Game Players of Zan.

Possibly either:
The Shore of Women
or
The Gate to Women's Country

Both involve segregated communities, a woman traveling outside of them and are much more socialogical than most SF.

the woman you are thinking of is from the movie version. In the novella the groups of people are in at least loose contact. But it revolves about Hell Tanner (and yeah, that's what his father named him) and the efforts to get drugs to cure a disease from one area to another, thought a world that has been seriously damaged (at least part of it is evironmental damage, part damage from a war) world. Plus of course, the resulting breakdown in civilization. I remember that Tanner talks about "running CANDY to Mormons in Utah" (and yeah, he really did mean that stuff made from sugar.)

What about The Spawn of the Death Machine.

And there's another one that I can't remember the title of that dealt with the breakdown of civilization because of a war--and this 1 man is wandering around for his "nation" which is somewhere in the middle of the country. He calls himself a barbarian and he gets involved with a woman from a technological group who is a Scout (her job is to keep an eye on the savages that surround the pocket of civilization that comprises her nation.) There are also mutated ants involved, but won't give any more details about it than that. The cover on the copy I have has a man's face with scars that cover 1 side, and he's missing an eye. There is also I believe, some kind of hover type craft shooting a beam down. This was written in the 70's? Maybe even earlier than that. If you think this sounds like it, I can go scouting through my 3k or so books to try to find the title for you. I just saw the book 4 or 5 months ago (had to redo all the books, since hubby decided to move all the bookcases, and he just dumped books into boxes any old way. I want them alphabetized by author. :oP)

Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny? That has a group of WWIII survivors crossing the desert in search of other survivors. I think there is a woman from somewhere else that meets up with them.

Perhaps We by Zamyatin? Looks like it was translated into English in the 70s twice. (Different US and UK editions.)

You might want to check out this page, or another list of dystopian fiction, to see if that helps. (If you haven't already, anyway.)

There is a science fiction book that was in paperback in the 1970s. I have only very vague memories of it, but I have a strong emotional feeling regarding it, unfortunately not very helpful at locating the book. Not hard SF, more sociological. There were a group of people who were "different" from everyone else and these people were segregated in their own communities. They did, however, travel outside this area for work, and I seem to remember there was some kind of public transportation involved. One of the main characters was a woman who was from this somewhat segregated society. She worked outside and I think I remember she was involved with a man from the outside in some way. It may have been romantic, but I don't remember for sure. It may be that she simply worked for him.

I don't remember the outcome of the book. I do remember it was rather dry reading with not a lot of action. I know this is very little to go on, but if anyone has a guess I'd be grateful.