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In rural Niger, although women traditionally do not take part in official political decision making and there is some division of men's and women's worlds, the local cultural ideology defines these conditions as complementary rather than unequal. Men tend to be characterized as the breadwinners and perform labor in the "public" and "official" domain as opposed to the "private and domestic" and "unofficial" domains. Men tend to travel more widely than women to do migrant labor and on caravan expeditions. Women tend to cook, act as the primary caregivers for children and aged persons, and do domestic work such as crushing grain. In rural areas, women perform arduous physical labor such as gathering firewood hand-processing food, fetching water from the well, and building and tending cooking fires. Semi-nomadic women construct the tent, whereas men construct the adobe mud houses. Those Haussa women who are in seclusion can participate in economic activities covertly by sending cooked snacks and crafted items with children for sale at markets. Women can participate in economic activities covertly, from within their compound walls, by sending cooked snacks and crafted items with children for sale at markets. Women may become respected herbal healers.