Women are powerful in Mfantse Culture.

Women are very important and powerful in Mfantseman. In Mfantse culture, women can also be installed as Chiefs. A typical example is Nana Eyiabah I of Efutu, Nana Aba Twi and several Safohemaa.

If a woman is installed as Safohemaa then she leads and commands that particular Asafo company. A woman can also take a male stool name. A typical example is Nana Ekow Ackon V (Twafohen of Oguaa Traditional Area).

 In Fante/Akan tradition Queen mothers are more powerful than a King. They can easily destool/dethrone a king/chief if he misbehaves. Queen mothers are the real power-holders. A king/chief toys with a queen mother at his own peril.

In the Akan cosmogony women were said to be the founders of the various clans: for example, the Tena/Bretuo clan was said to have been mothered by a woman by name Asiama Guahyia at Ayaasi in Adanse, Rattray (1925). The Asona Clan which originated at Sodua in Adanse descended from a woman who was said to have emerged from the skies just like the mother of the Tena, Agyeman-Dua (1963); Daaku (1972); Boahen (1966).

Since the Akan lineage is maintained through the matrilineal line these women leaders came to be recognized as Queen mothers, or heads of the clans. They were repositories of knowledge and wisdom, therefore complicated issues were referred to them for counselling. Thus the concept of: Yenkobisa Abrewa that is, "Let us seek counselling from the old lady" evolved and still persists up to today.

The word "Abrewa" did not just mean an old lady, in this context it meant the Good Old Lady. She was referred to as "good" because she was always able to give very good counselling leading to amicable settlement of issues for which men counsellors alone often messed up, sometimes leading to unrest and wars in the olden days.

Homes are made by the wisdom of women.(Proverbs 14:1). So these female leaders built and established homes. (Rattray 1923 and Busua 1968) claimed that traditionally females were more important than men in matrilineal societies. 

The Queen mother, therefore was the female ruler whose role complemented that of the male ruler or the Chief.(Arhin 1983). Indeed, she was directly in-charge of the female affairs of the community. The Akan word for the term Queenmother was Ohenmaa. This word was the shortened form of the mother of a Chief; Ohene (chief) maame (mother).

Since the Akan tradition is emphatic about the motherhood of the female leader to the chief (and therefore the Stool), this explanation appears plausible, (Boaten 1991).