This article examines changes in gender relations in an Indian pueblo in south-western Nicaragua between Independence and the coffee revolution, when the nation-state was weak and municipal governments exercised considerable power. It analyses landed property, household headship and public control over so-called private morality, and considers how these were influenced by the coffee economy. First, it argues that public regulation of domestic life was important in the consolidation of municipal authority. It legitimated the power of the ladino peasant elite, a key aspect of state formation at the local level. Second, the article examines how the rise of private property altered gendered arrangements. It analyses the relationship between expansion in female land rights and the incidence of female headed households and argues that peasant women's acquisition of land accentuated a pre-existing tendency towards non-marrying behaviour. The study is based on archival sources.