In a sexist, patriarchal society, men continually underestimate the intelligence and capabilities of women—and ultimately sabotage themselves in so doing. This theme is most saliently iterated through the titular idea of "trifles." The male characters in the play consistently dismiss both the women's conversation and their possessions as trifles—not knowing that it is within these purported trifles that the answers they seek lie. If the men took both Mrs. Wright’s suffering and possessions into real consideration, then their blustering “hard work” might have borne fruit. Instead, the men are content to rely upon their suppositions and assumptions about the inconsequential triviality of women and domestic work in order to attend to details at the farmhouse that they, as men, deem important or promising. It is this willful ignorance that gives the women a perfect opportunity to piece together the crime, mostly unmolested, and to smuggle the crucial piece of evidence out of the farmhouse.  

Domestic life and items—as well as the strength and labor required to keep a home—are habitually dismissed by men as insignificant trifles. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale share an immediate affinity for and understanding of one another because of their shared experiences as women and wives.