This article describes how material conditions such as health and work conditions can affect gender structure by affecting men and women’s status. Maintains that work policies and other regional agricultural characteristics discriminate against women and maintain their subordination. The stage of the family cycle influences adaptive strategies. Local characteristics determine family adaptation, as well as the development of adaptive strategies. Women’s status is subrdinate to men’s even when role behavior changes, which results in the dichotomous nature of gender structure and the differential influence of conditions on ideology and behavior.
