The dowry is money that women can "bank", and
I BELIEVE if they get married at the end of the show, that is their money to keep....(not sure though..will rewatch my tape and post what they say....) How a woman accumulates money is like so.....
In the first episode, the 5 women went on First Dates with their 5 men. Then 4 challengers showed up. Troy was the winner of the axe toss, so he got to "pick" who he would like to go on a date with, and he chose Rebekah. Because she was picked first, she got some money.
I think it worked like this...
A woman starts out with $5000.00
If she was the one picked by a "Challenger Man" who won a competition, she got $2000.
After the dates, when they were all at Proposal Point, the 4 Challenger Men had a chance to give their one plea to a woman that they liked, & each plea that a woman received was worth $2000 for the dowry.
Rebekah got $5000 from the beginning, plus $2000 because Troy picked her from the ax competition. Then, she got 3 more pleas (one from Troy, Jack and Matt = $6000 total).
So right now, Rebekah has $13,000 in her dowry.
If you go to the website, you can see the Dating Chart of the contestants and their "dowries". Sissie got one plea, so she is in "2nd place", dowry wise, with $7,000.00
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A few minutes later...
Okay, I just re-watched the dowry part and the Host said "that's money in the bank on the day you get married". So I presume that if don't get married you don't get to keep the money???
Oh, and for winning the axe competition, Troy won $2,000 as well.