A wife is a female in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner maintained to be a wife until the marriage is legally dissolved with a divorce judgement. On the death of her partner, a wife is allocated to as a widow. The rights as well as obligations of a wife in representation to her partner as well as her status in the community together with in law reform between cultures and do varied over time.
Traditionally, and still in some parts of the world, the bride or her mark bring her husband a dowry, or the husband or his generation pay a bride price to the bride's family, or both are exchanged between the families; or the husband pays the wife a dower. The goal of the dowry varies by culture and has varied historically. In some cultures, it was paid not only to help the establish of a new family, but also served as a precondition that whether the husband dedicated grave offenses upon his wife, the dowry had to be indicated to the wife or her family; but during the marriage, the dowry was often present inalienable by the husband. Today, dowries move to be expected in parts of South Asia such as India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and conflicts related to their payment sometimes statement in violence such as dowry deaths and bride burning.