Typically from the ages
of 15 or 16 years, young women entered the industrial and service workforce
of the capital or provincial towns, but they regularly returned to visit
parents on key festival days and irregularly at times of family emergency.
Marriage (whether to village men or suitors encountered in the city) and
childbearing brought women back to their natal homes, although many
returned to the city to take up work again. Parents and grandparents played
a critical function in taking care of children, allowing women to continue
to seek wage work in a wide variety of fields, whether in the capital,
provincial towns or overseas.