Creon says to his son Haimon that is would be bad enough to yield to a man, but he would never yield to a woman. What does the play say about a...

Sophocles' play Antigone dives deep into an exploration of the roles women are expected to fulfill within society and what happens when women defy those expectations. 

First, let's establish some context for the discussion:

The play opens with the Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, proclaiming that the two deceased brothers who had led opposites sides of forces in Thebes' civil war will be buried very differently: while Eteocles will be honored with an appropriate burial, Polyneices will be shamed by being left out on the battlefield for carrion to feed on. The brothers' sisters, Antigone and Ismene, also have differing opinions on this matter. While Ismene is too afraid to intervene and refuses to participate, Antigone executes a proper burial for Polyneices.

Creon catches word of this burial and eventually discovers that Antigone is responsible for it. They fight over the morality of the issue, and then Creon has Antigone and Ismene imprisoned. Eventually, it is decided that Ismene will be spared, but that Antigone will be buried alive in a cave—despite the warnings of Tiresias the prophet. 

Antigone ultimately takes the situation into her own hands by killing herself, which, in turn, leads to the suicide of Haemon, Creon's son, and Eurydice, Creon's wife—a punishment in fulfillment of Tiresias' claim that the gods are displeased with Creon's edict. 

Given this narrative arc, we can see that women—Antigone, in particular—are persistently disrespected and punished throughout the play when they choose to step outside the roles which men force them into. In Antigone, women are meant to be obedient, submissive, agreeable creatures who defer to the "superior" judgment of men. Creon assumes that his edict will be followed and that no one will dare defy him, yet Antigone points out to him:

I dared.

It was not God's proclamation. That final Justice

That rules the world below makes no such laws.

Your edict, King, was strong,

But all your strength is weakness itself against

The immortal unrecorded laws of God. 

They are not merely now: they were, and shall be,

Operative for ever, beyond man utterly.

Antigone is pointing out that Creon is a fallible man, not a god, and that, thus, his decrees will not be blindly followed; it is, in fact, his utter conviction that they should be blindly followed that is his ultimate weakness as a ruler.

We see Creon's bruised ego when he replies:

Who is the man here,

She or I, if this crime goes unpunished?

Creon is more interested in maintaining his reputation as a man—and not being undermined by a woman—than in seeing justice enacted. This bias against women and desire to punish Antigone for her outspokenness is further emphasized when Creon accuses Ismene of aiding Antigone with the burial when she was clearly not involved. He openly mocks the pair and insults their intelligence, stating:

Gentleman, I beg you to observe these girls:

One has just now lost her mind; the other,

It seems, has never had a mind at all.

He clearly does not see Antigone as what she is: a force to be reckoned with. He orders that the two be taken out of his sight and imprisoned, remarking with one last jab at their womanhood:

...take them away and guard them well:

For they are but women, and even brave men run

When they see Death coming.

When Haemon comes to Creon to plead on the behalf of Antigone, Creon once again demonstrates that he sees women as mere trophies who are born to serve their husbands domestically and, at least initially, in bed. He encourages Haemon to forget Antigone, declaring:

Your pleasure with her would soon grow cold, Haemon,

And then you'd have a hellcat in bed and elsewhere.

Let her find her husband in Hell!

Creon is implying that Antigone, like all women who become wives, is useful for the pleasure of conquest and sexual pursuit, but then that she will grow tiresome and irritating to Haemon. When Haemon further attempts to defend Antigone, Creon accuses  him of "selling out to a woman" and brands him as "girlstruck." 

Ultimately, Antigone emerges as a singular force of strength and courage, openly defying the submissive role that Creon expects her to play. While it costs her her life to do so, Antigone manages to make a huge impact on Creon, knocking him from the throne and setting off a chain of deaths that steal Creon's family from him. She is not merely some foolish girl, as Creon underestimated her to be, but rather a woman with a moral code of her own and the will to see it followed.