Complex sentence: Some women weavers felt that they had gained more bargaining power in the eyes of business people who had previously exploited them; other women claimed that they had gained a larger sense of their value and overall contribution to their own households.
Split into simpler sentences: Some women weavers felt that they had gained more bargaining power in the eyes of business people who had previously exploited them. Other women claimed that they had gained a larger sense of their value and overall contribution to their own households.