As we have suggested, the role of labouring farm women in Northumberland, Westmoreland and in southeastern Scotland was multifaceted. In addition to playing a very important role in the farming economy, wives and daughters of hinds made a substantial contribution to the family economy. Like inshore fishing, a household economy, reminiscent of pre-industrial times, prevailed in these agricultural farming families. Given the low wages of the hind, the wives' farming and domestic skills and ability to manage a meagre budget were vital to the survival of the family. Their important role inevitably brings up the question of the degree of the authority they enjoyed. The previous groups of women we have studied had varying degrees of authority in the household: fisher women most of all, though mining women – particularly those who were involved in political activities – had a considerable say in their households, and even the more typical domestic woman had more power than is immediately obvious. The degree of authority enjoyed by farming women varied depending on the group to which they belonged: wives, bondagers, cottars or daughters. The picture is, in fact, curiously mixed.

One aspect of their domestic role was onerous maternal duties. The Census of Fertility of 1913 indicates that agricultural workers in the nation as a whole had higher fertility than all other groups in the nation, except coal miners. In the years 1881–86, they averaged 7.72 births compared to 8.88 for miners working at the face.