The helots were subjugated tribes and people that the Spartans had conquered and held in slavery. They conducted all trade and agricultural duties, freeing Spartan males to serve exclusively in the army. Both helots and Spartan women enjoyed much more freedom than slaves and women in any other Greek city. Spartan women had almost perfectly equal rights to Spartan men and were highly respected. Helots had both many more rights and much more to fear from their Spartan masters. The helots were allowed to marry, own small amounts of property and practice their own religious rights – all three things frequently denied to slaves in other cities. To defend these rights, helots often accompanied the Spartan army to war although they rarely took part in the actual fighting. Should a helot son gain sponsorship from a full Spartan citizen, he could even enroll in the agoge, the incredibly fierce and brutal Spartan training program that all male citizens went through, and potentially become a citizen himself one day.