This study examines the effect of family structural complexity, residence and descent system, and female contribution to subsistence on women's power in marriage. Results suggest that wives have more power in marriage where there is nuclear family organization and matrilocality. The authors suggest that resource theory should broaden its conception of valued resources to include dimensions such as family organization patterns.

This article investigates possible correlates of women’s overt political power in a cross-cultural sample. Rule of descent—specifically, matrilineal or double descent— is the only factor the author found to be associated with women’s overt political power. Several other factors, including sex ratio, subsistence type, contribution to subsistence, and political system, are not associated. The author also includes a discussion of political activity among chimpanzees, as well as a brief ethnographic summary of several societies in which women have political power.

This study relates female contributions to a variety of social variables. The author divides responses to high female contribution to subsistence into two categories: adaptive (i.e. increased exogamy, polygyny, and bridewealth) and attitudinal (i.e. increased valuation of girls and premarital permissiveness). It is proposed that where women contribute more, “they are perceived less as objects for male sexual and reproductive needs and more as a person in their own right” (149).

This study tests the various ecological and social influences of women's political power and resource control in polygynous societies cross-culturally. Results suggest that women who are closer to their kin and have sisters as cowives are more likely to have resource control and power.

This article examines the restriction of women in religious ritual, focusing on cultural traits that favor men's power. Results suggest that patrilineality and male inheritance correlate with the restriction of women’s participation in ritual.

The second and third parts of this book classify the economic systems of foraging and agricultural societies in the SCCS based on correlations between their institutions of property an distribution. These economic types are then examined for relationships with other social, political, demographic, and environmental factors in order to draw tentative conclusions regarding the origins of the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. The fourth part of the book uses cross-national data to examine similar associations in industrial/service economies, and is not included here.

This study tests the various ecological and social influences of women's political power and resource control in polygynous societies cross-culturally. Results suggest that women who are closer to their kin and have sisters as cowives are more likely to have resource control and power.

This book is concerned with explaining variation in the status of women. The author, after measuring over 50 aspects of status, first concludes that status is not a unitary concept. Therefore the author looks at 10 different domains of status. Many traditional explanations are not supported; most support is found for the influence of social complexity which generally lowers female status.

This study examines the double standard regarding extramarital norms for men and women in relation to other sociocultural factors. Results suggest that a double standard is significantly related to post-partum sex taboos, hypermasculinity, and father absence.

This article presents a review of the scholarly work relating to marital quality. Cross-cultural testing of various predictors of marital qualtiy are presented singlely as well as multiple regression analyses.