Chapter 8 Womens roles in the agricultural household: Bargaining and human capital investments Three themes are related to womens economic roles in the agricultural household. First the unified family as coordinator of production and consumption over a life cycle. Second the role of separability of production and consumption decisions in the agricultural household that depends on the equivalence of hired and of family labor. Third Nashbargaining or Pareto efficient collective coordination in the family. Increases in womens human capital affects gender bargaining and is closely related to declines in child mortality fertility and population growth and increases in child “quality” as proxied by child schooling and health status.