Toward a Theory of the Status of Women1

A theory of the status of women is presented which draws primarily on ecological and economic factors and posits a relationship between female production and female status. It was hypothesized that female contribution to subsistence activities would be a function of certain ecological factors and/or a prolonged drain of male labor. It was found that these factors were related to female production activities. A scale of female status was then derived from a small pilot sample and correlated with female contribution to subsistence. The results indicated that female production is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the development of female status