This article historicises gender relations among Wampar speakers in New Guinea (PNG). It analyses three interconnected female biographies to show how historical background interacts with current large-scale capitalist projects to exacerbate social inequalities. One biography exemplifies linkages between Christianisation, education and political representation; the second focuses on inheritance, access to land, and dogmas about patriliny; the third describes a woman’s unfavourable position within a sibling set and her access to benefits from land leases. Support by their social network, sibling relations, birth order and, today, marital alliances, are key factors in women’s success in the running of businesses, negotiating land disputes, and obtaining representation in political fora set up to deal with social problems. I demonstrate how older differentiations are reproduced as novel inequalities in political representation and in access to land and wealth. These result in new forms of exclusion that differentiate men and women, but which also differentiate life-chances among women.