The Athenian kinship system appears to be readily recognizable as cognatic. The kinship terminology is thoroughly bilateral. Nevertheless the Athenian kinship system can be seen as patrilineal. Thus the Athenian inheritance laws requiring equal division of the paternal estate among male heirs. The complexities of sibling relationships resulted from the struggles for the acquisition of property and wealth. Females neither were their doweries equal to their brothers` share of the patrimony. Women were not legally competent to control any property. It was their kyrioi who stood to benefit from any female inheritance. Then the dowry was in the ownership of the husband. There is no doubt that dowry was considered in part to be a contribution from the bride s oikos to the oikos of her husband. The dowry, always a source of male honor, stimulates concern for the woman s welfare and reinforces strong ties between brothers and sisters. This concern results in the tendency for sisters to many earlier than their brothers. The brother`s care devoted to the dowry and the contracting of a suitable marriage for the sister went hand in hand with a family`s concern for its prestige and its maintenance of ties with trustworthy allies. Because the sister ideally had little claim to the paternal estate outside the dowry, she was not a rival to her brother, and as such she and her husband could work with her brother in a trusting relationship for the benefit of the paternal estate. The sister made sure that she provided an heir for their brother, or she and her brother worked together to protect her dotal property, or in order to protect her brother`s estate. After all a brother` concern for his sister`s welfare at and after marriage, concern for her children, and concern Particularly for the dowry that originally belonged to the woman`s paternal estate. As well as brother concerns focused on whether or not the sister was dowered adequately, or the widowed or divorced sister would return to the brother s house with in intact dowry. A woman`s natal oikos retained a strong interest in her and in her dowry even after marriage. By the process of adoption, a sister could supply her brother with a son. Further, a girl could supply her own father with a son. Given the nature of the Athenian kinship and inheritance systems, whether they wished it or not, they played a vital role in the life of the polis. Women were not only the producers of legitimate sons and heirs for their husbands but, in the marriage exchanges between oikoi, they could be counted on to provide an alternative supply of heirs for their own natal oikoi. In these ways women played a role integral to the economic transferences and kinship solidarity of the polis.