While there are similarities between women's fiction and romance there are also very distinct differences. Editors look for the key elements that make a good and compelling woman's fiction, while the publishers can be the same for both genres.
Romance is but a part in women's fiction, it is there but it is not the complete plot. An enjoyable story-line is what makes women's fiction, a story-line that attracts women who (perhaps more than men) enjoy reading. The whole story should be about issues that appeal to women, including the empowerment of women.

Literary Agent Linda Hyatt of the Hyatt Literary Agency once said something like this: "other fiction cannot touch the reader the same that a good women's commercial fiction can. Women should be able to relate the subjects of women's fiction (and Relationship stories, generational sagas, love stories) to their real lives. No matter what emotions the book might stir up in the women's heart"

Author Eileen Goudge explains it a in a way that I like. Novels are like tapestry, very colorful and with a lot of different shapes is what het editor says. Then Goudge compares the tapestry to women's fiction by telling us that the tapestry of this genre becomes richer if it becomes more intricate. Each subplot is as a thread on the loom of imagination. To engross the reader, the author has to weave the threads together in a way it's coherent.

That applies not just to women's fiction but to all writing, but she makes clear that women's fiction isn't just a straight romance plot, it is more.

In her article (Women's fiction vs. romance, The Writer April 2007) Goudge states that the two genre's are separated by the writing. In women's fiction, there are less love-scene metaphors, flowery descriptive passages and unnecessary adverbs.

So though there are differences the relationship between the genre's is very close, and the might even overlap. The most desirable is to appeal to both audiences.