While it might be going too far to call Lady Bertilak "progressive," she certainly wields a great deal of power. While powerful female characters are not unheard of in Arthurian lore, they are usually easy to sort into moral categories, such as the noble Lady of the Lake and the wicked Morgan le Fay (who is the ultimate mastermind behind the entire test Gawain undergoes). In contrast, Lady Bertilak occupies a more morally grey area with her overtly sexual temptations, even though her ultimate purpose is to test Gawain's sense of chivalry.

The bedroom scenes are subversive in how much power they give Lady Bertilak. As her guest and as a knight committed to chivalry, Gawain is supposed to avoid offending Lady Bertilak at all costs—and this includes offending her by rejecting her sexual offerings (she outright says he is "welcome to my body"), even if they are adulterous. Her intelligence puts Gawain in a corner, and while he never sleeps with her, he does submit to a few kisses so as to be polite enough to his host's wife without crossing the line to extramarital sex. She even succeeds in tripping up his sense of honor when she persuades him into taking the allegedly enchanted girdle so he can save his own life, even though this is a sign of cowardice.

While Lady Bertilak's agency is a matter of debate since she is only a pawn in Morgan le Fay and Lord Bertilak's testing of Gawain, but regardless, she is a powerful character, able to bring even a great knight like Gawain to his knees.