Women play a significant role in an agricultural community as paid or unpaid workers whether full or part-time, for those families who need a second income; as home makers and mothers. Women are largely economically dependent on men. Those women who have a higher level of education are more likely to obtain higher paid work than those women who do not. The role of women who marry into wealthy families is somewhat different to those who need to seek paid employment or who need to do farm labour as well as assisting their husband. Few women own or manage a property in their own right.

We live in a patriarchal society which sees the form of social organisation as having the father as the head of the family, with descent following the male line in the family, the children belonging to the father’s clan and usually taking the father’s surname. [1]  Inheritance particularly in conservative farming communities is usually passed from the father to the son with females being given and preferring cash in preference to property. [2]