The men are stronger, more important. Paton develops the power of gender slowly, just by describing men, and rarely speaking of women. Paton wrote: "Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed." (pg 1) The men are the most important thing, they are what keeps society going strong. In another passage: "They are valleys of old men and old women, of mothers and children. The men are away, the young men and the girls are away." (pg 2) The men have left the dead land, leaving the rest to care for themselves.
Later Paton writes: "Down in the valleys women scratch the soil that is left, and the maize hardly reaches the height of a man." The women are lower in society, while the men are what keeps it going. Women may be only as important as cooking and childbearing, while the men hunt, work, and protect society.
With these differences, women are more important in African society, while they are almost meaningless in Paton's eyes.
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