The novel’s central theme comes from Effy’s negative experience with and battle against systemic gender discrimination in her society. This is present at an institutional level as well as a deeper, ingrained cultural level. At the start of the novel, Effy is unsatisfied with her path in life because she’s studying a university subject that she isn’t particularly interested in. This is because the architecture college is a prestigious environment that has only recently begun to admit women, in contrast to her first-choice literature college, which is exclusively male. In becoming the architecture college’s first female student, Effy feels that she is transcending the university’s gender stigma in some way and taking a step forward for womankind. However, she does this at her own expense because she ends up studying something she isn’t passionate about.

Throughout her journey, Effy encounters resistance, dismissal, and entitlement from the men around her. This begins with her thesis advisor Master Corbenic, who feels a sense of entitlement toward her because she is a subordinate woman in a vast, male-dominated environment. The lack of accountability he experiences for his actions, compared to the rumors and preconceptions that follow Effy through school, further emphasizes the unbalanced gender standards at play.