Patricia Draper ('!Kung Women: Contrasts in Sexual Egalitarianism in Foraging and Sedentary Contexts,' in Rayna Reiter, ed. _Toward an Anthropology of Women_) found that !Kung women in the bush had more autonomy and were freer from male domination than !Kung women in settled groups. Draper noted that transition from hunting & gathering to animal husbandry and crop planting led to decline of women's influence relative to men.
Features of foraging life promoting egalitarianism include:
'women's subsistence contribution and the control women retain
over the food they have gathered; the requisities of foraging
in the Kalahari which entail a similar degree of mobility for
both sexes; the lack of rigidity inb sex-typing of many adult
activities, including domestic chores and aspects of child
socialization; the cultural sanction against physical expression
of aggression; the small group size; and the nature of the
settlement pattern.' (p. 78)
Settled way of life resulted in:
'increasing rigidity in sex-typing of adult work; more permanent
attachment of the individual to a particular place and group of
people; dissimilar childhood socialization for boys and girls;
descrease in the mobility of women as contrasted with men;
changing nature of women's subsistence contribution; richer
material inventory with implications for women's work; tendency
for men to have greater access to and control over such
important resources as domestic animals, knowledge of Bantu
language and culture, wage work; male entrance into extra-village
politics; settlement pattern; and increasing household privacy.'
(p. 78) Michael Hoover