Madame Kukshina is introduced as an “emancipated” woman, or a woman not chained by the traditional and societal rules that shackle the others. She has Sitnikov, Arkady, and Bazarov into her home. Kukshina’s unpleasant appearance is enough to make Bazarov grimace: “the insignificant little figure of the emancipated woman had nothing positively ugly; but the expression of her features was disagreeable” (77). She provides her company with champagne and cigars and engages them in lengthy conversation. Her home is disheveled; half-smoked cigarettes and academic reviews lay strewn across her “dust-covered tables” (77).
She is an educated woman, and she discusses women’s rights, foreign literature, and philosophy with Sitnikov, Arkady, and Bazarov. She invites Bazarov to sit next to her on her couch, though she admits that she is intimidated by Bazarov’s intelligent, yet absolutely critical nature.. Though she does not agree with all of Bazarov and Sitnikov’s ideas, she is fascinated by them and finds their intellectual conversation exciting. She defends her feminist ideas against Sitnikov’s attacks. Bazarov takes little interest in her and says little during his time in her home. Bazarov appears to find her dull and contrived. Perhaps Kukshina’s most important contribution to the plot is her mention of Madame Odintsov, whom she gives as an example of a beautiful, yet poorly educated woman.