Context: Women were expected to obey the will of their father, then their husband, and then their adult son in old age. However, it is known from contemporary sources that there were many deviations to this rule, especially in regard to mothers over their sons, and empresses who ordered around and openly humiliated their fathers and brothers. Women were exempt from the annual corvée labor duties, but often engaged in a range of income-earning occupations aside from their domestic chores of cooking and cleaning.

Question: Which gender was exempt from performing the yearly corvee labor duties?
Answer: Women

Question: What emotional state would empresses commonly place their immediate family members in?
Answer: openly humiliated

Question: What type of occupation did women commonly take part in?
Answer: income-earning

Question: Who were women obligated to obey in their old age?
Answer: their adult son

Question: Which parental figures often avoided the common familial rules?
Answer: mothers