The Navajo are a tribe of American Indians that traditionally resided in pueblo dwellings in Southwest of the United States. These dwellings were traditionally governed by female patriarchs and consisted of several closely related matriarchal families. the Navajo depended on horticulture as their means of providing for themselves. While both men and women were involved in farming, women engaged in foraging and domestic tasks as well, only spending part of their time working in the fields while men traditionally spent all of their time working in the fields. Men were also responsible for creating raiding parties that would engage in raids and wars of local Navajo and American settlers.

The head of a Navajo dwelling is always a matriarch. Family ties are decided by the mother’s lineage. Men work for their mother’s family until they are married, in which case they go to live with their wife’s family and work for them. However, men in Navajo culture still have rights. They are allowed to own property, typically sheep, and their property will transfer from their family with them to their wife’s family in marriage. Both men and women can ask for a divorce and rates of spousal abuse are extremely rare in Navajo culture. Especially early in a marriage divorce was fairly common. Men would only bring over a token number of their livestock at first in a marriage and then slowly bring more over as the relationship became more stable. Men are allowed to take multiple wives, however will typically marry sisters as they must live with their wife’s family.

Unfortunately, gender roles have changed since the Mexican-American War. After slaughtering all but 8,000 of the Navajo in the Indian Wars U.S. officials refused to negotiate with matriarchs and instead insisted on communicating with male leaders. For this reason, men became responsible for interacting with the United States government and have since held more of a leadership role. In the great depression, many Navajo men and women had to go into wage labor in order to sustain their families. Gender differences occurred in the Navajo community because men were paid more for their labor than women were. The types of jobs that men and women took were also gender linked. Men worked in construction, building maintenance, railroad and highway repair, mining, and forestry while women were employed as service sector employees, school aides and as factory operatives. For the first time in Navajo history men and women’s work was wholly separated. Although men and women held different responsibilities before relying on wage labor they still held common ground while working the fields.

Despite these western based gender differences male dominance has not developed. Women’s autonomy is respected and their rights have in no way been undermined. Although women’s economic contributions have been weekend underlying social and religious ideologies have maintained balance between the genders.