Karen Sacks (if I recall correctly) conducted ethnographic research on African hunting and gathering tribes as they transitioned to horticulture. By a number of meaningful economic and political indicators, women were substantially better off in the hunting and gathering tribes than they were in sedentary horticultural societies.
Sacks suggests that women have a more explicit, socially recognized economic role in hunting and gathering societies (the tribe is mostly dependent on women for subsistence; calories from hunting are sporadic at best); this translates into political autonomy and respect. In sedentary horticultural/agrarian societies, women become the "helpmate" of the economic provider (the man deals with the economic surplus of crops); this translates into lower prestige and less political/economic autonomy for women.
Miles