including failed relationships that threatened her self-worth and livelihood

[KLPNO]

Hello everyone,

From the book Choose Your Story, Change Your Life by Kindra Hall.

A late-forties, almost fiftysomething woman from Texas, Amy is smart and introspective. She has achieved great things in her life, including running a massively successful entrepreneurial endeavor and holding a top-level leadership role in a corporate education environment, both of which require superior leadership and communication skills. She has also overcome several significant obstacles, including failed relationships that threatened her self-worth and livelihood. In short, Amy is a badass.

Does the bolded phrase mean that only failed relationships, not other significant obstacles mentioned earlier in the sentence, threatened her self-worth and livelihood?

 

[5jj]

Not necessarily.

 

[jutfrank]

To me, yes.

 

[tedmc]

My reading is that the failed relationships were one of the obstacles, amongst others, that threatened her self-worth and livelihood.

 

[emsr2d2]

If there were a comma after "failed relationships", I would say that they were one of many obstacles that had threatened her self-worth and livelihood. Without the comma, it's two things:

1 - Several significant obstacles
2 - failed relationships that threatened her self-worth and livelihood.