How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Ay, Dios mío, spare me." Mamá sighs, but playfulness has come back into her voice. "Just what we need, skirts in the law!"
"It is just what this country needs." Minerva's voice has the steely sureness it gets whenever she talks politics. She has begun talking politics a lot. [. . .] "It's about time we women had a voice in running our country." (1.1.65-65)
Mamá uses synecdoche to refer to women, with a piece of clothing (skirts) filling in for the whole person. Reducing women to a frilly garment just emphasizes how much she disagrees that women should do something crazy like use their brains and study.
Quote #2
It started with Patria wanting to be a nun. Mamá was all for having religion in the family, but Papá did not approve in the least. More than once, he said that Patria as a nun would be a waste of a pretty girl. He only said that once in front of Mamá, but he repeated it often enough to me. (1.2.6)
Papá's reaction to Patria's desire reveals a lot about what he thinks a woman should be doing (and it's not serving the Lord). If becoming a nun is a "waste of a pretty girl," that means there must be a proper use of a pretty girl, and it is probably to do with sex and reproduction… since nuns aren't supposed to get married or have children.
Quote #3
So, when it came time for Patria to go down to Inmaculada Concepción, I asked Papá if I could go along. That way I could chaperone my older sister, who was already a grown-up señorita. (And she had told me all about how girls become señoritas, too.) (1.2.8)
The name of the girls' school is Inmaculada Concepción (Immaculate Conception), which is probably a tongue-in-cheek joke on the part of the author. They're obsessed with growing up, getting their periods, and eventually doin' it—these girls are definitely earthly beings.