… a flexible gender system … meant … certain women could occupy roles and positions usually monopolized by men, and thereby exercise considerable pow… - Ifi Amadiume

A woman at this stage of her life no longer sought to be sexually attractive to men, and was no longer in sexual competition with other women. Matrons, in order to succeed economically and wield power, had to free themselves of 'messy' and 'demeaning' female domestic services, which included sexual services. Woman-to-woman marriage was one of the ways of achieving this. The younger wife would then take over the domestic duties.

Extremely powerful and assertive women were able to dominate their husbands.

It was with pride that Nwokocha Agbadi returned the twenty bags of cowries to his former son-in-law and he even added a live goat as a token of insult.