The novel prominently explores the theme of women's struggle for equality and self-determination, primarily highlighted through their conflicts with Esteban Trueba. Esteban holds the belief that a woman's main duties are "motherhood and the home," yet he concedes the difficulty of this role: "I would not have liked to be a woman," he confesses to Férula, who is burdened with caring for their sick mother. Interestingly, Esteban holds a deep respect for the most unconventional woman he knows, Tránsito Soto, whose drive has made her a successful businesswoman. However, he still treats women as objects, assaulting peasant women without remorse, paying female workers less than their male counterparts, and demanding complete obedience from the women in his family.

He disapproves of Nívea del Valle's advocacy for women's suffrage and prohibits Clara from educating the workers on the hacienda about women's rights. Clara consistently challenges her husband's expectations, living life by her own rules. She uses their home to conduct spiritualist gatherings and support the needy. Similarly, Blanca defies her father by becoming romantically involved with Pedro Tercero, although she eventually marries Jean de Satigny due to Esteban's insistence.

By the time his granddaughter matures, Esteban "had finally come to accept...that not all women were complete idiots," and agrees that Alba "could enter one of the professions and make her living like a man." The fight for equality has fortified women, as Alba realizes after being rescued from an empty lot where the political police had left her. The woman who saves her is "one of the stoical, practical women of our country," and the risks she takes to assist a stranger make Alba understand that "the days of Colonel García and all those like him are numbered, because they have not been able to destroy the spirit of these women."