There are many traditional practices that colour the suffering of Timorese women. Parents often determine their daughter's husband, and many men feel that violence towards their wife is their right and cultural obligation. Male children are put first in matters of nutrition, upbringing, and inheritance, which influences the health and economic conditions of women. She may be beaten, sometimes forced to serve the sexual needs of her master, and is often ostracised by the community. Almost half of the East Timorese work as farmers and live below the poverty line, and it's not hard to see that face of poverty in East Timor is female.
Women work from morning to night, but men see their work merely as obligatory duties.
Village women do most of the field work, from cultivation to the cleaning of the harvested rice, but they receive only a small part of the harvest to earn money for their own needs. In general, girls are not sent to school, except in the case of families who have no sons. Educating girls is regarded as profiting another family - that of their future husband. Higher education also is given greater priority for boys, so that women have far less opportunity to become leaders and to protect their rights. The long war has resulted in widespread health problems.