I think that Framley Parsonage is an excellent example of Trollope critiquing women's limited roles in society. So he's playing off against the medieval trope / story of Patient Griselda as the 'perfect woman'. He creates a woman in Griselda Grantley who is perfect by the rules of Victorian society - beautiful, silent, never makes waves, marries to oblige her family, never does or says anything that anyone could actually object to - and yet clearly a monster. Whereas Lucy, who from the first is described as being known by everyone as the cleverest of her family, is argumentative, strong-minded, intellectual, passionate, etc. And Lucy is clearly the heroine. We're in no doubt that if Lucy were the man, she would never have got into the troubles that Mark gets into.
And one of the reasons Mark gets into trouble is that he can't bear the idea that he's ruled by a woman (Lady Luscombe) - and yet who gets him out of it? It's the sharp-talking quick-thinking millionaire Miss Dunstable.
I particularly like the scene where Lucy arranges the 'kidnap' of the children while the men just stand around intellectualising, and one says to the other (Mark to the Dean, I think) 'She means well', and the other replies, 'No, she does well.'
It's very clear that the men would have watched the children and their mother die of typhus out of pride (the same pride that we've watched get Mark into debt), and Lucy will not allow it.