Paradise examines the roles and expectations placed on women within both the African-American community and society at large. It explores how patriarchal structures restrict women's agency and perpetuate harmful stereotypes. The women of the Convent challenge traditional gender roles and struggle for autonomy, while the men in Ruby exert control over the women in their lives—and, eventually, over the women living in the Convent. 

In Ruby, women’s lives fit a specific mold and are often less valuable. As Patricia laments, no one bother to recall women’s stories, leading her to wonder:

Who were these women who, like her mother, had only one name? Celeste, Olive, Sorrow, Ivlin, Pansy. Who were these women with generalized last names? Brown, Smith, Rivers, Stone, Jones. Women whose identity rested on the men they married––if marriage applied: a Morgan, a Flood, a Blackhorse, a Poole, a Fleetwood."

In Ruby, women are only as valuable as the men they are married to. In a town sustained by oral tradition, a woman can only count on being remembered as long her husband's name is spoken.