When people survive through networks of relatives and neighbours rather than through shared position at work, their loyalties run along those networks instead of across a class. This is part of what keeps class consciousness from forming. It also favours a politics of patrons and clients, where people seek protection from a powerful connection rather than joining with equals.
So-called modernization changes women's social and economic lives in specific ways, not simply for the better. Where women stay excluded from wage earning, the shift to a cash economy can push them to rely even more on older ties of territory and kinship.
Social standing comes from three systems at once: class, set by your relation to how wealth is produced; estate, set by the status you were born into; and tribal segment, set by claims to territory. Each system modifies the others, so no single one tells you where a person stands.