Wealth generated by [[Farming]] and herding enabled **polygyny** (men having multiple wives). In contrast, women having many husbands (**polyandry**) was rare. Thus marriage payment under [[Monogamy]] is in the opposite direction than it is under polygyny and takes the form of “dowry”. The parents of the bride give money to the parents of the groom, or to the couple themselves. Dowry, which is still important in much of Asia today, is the parents’ way of helping their daughters compete with other women on the marriage market. Dowry can sometimes give women more agency and [[Control]] over at least part of their [[Family]] wealth. But there is a sting in the tail. Dowry inflation can make girls expensive for parents, sometimes with dire consequences, such as families which already have daughters killing or neglecting female babies (or now female-selective abortion). There were other consequences of [[Monogamy]] too. As wealth was still passed down the male line to children of one wife, males did all they could to ensure that those children were theirs. They did not want to unwittingly invest their wealth in the offspring of another man. So women’s sexuality became strongly policed as a result. Keeping women away from men (purdah), or placing them in religious “cloisters” such as monasteries (claustration) in India, or 2,000 years of binding women’s feet to keep them small in China, may all be the results of this. And in the current context, banning abortion makes sexual [[Relationships]] potentially costly, trapping people in marriages and hindering women’s career prospects.