Atete, also spelled Ateetee, is the Oromo divinity of women, fertility and the harvest, and one of the most prominent feminine powers of Waaqeffanna. She is addressed by the maternal term ayyoo, 'mother', and is closely associated, sometimes to the point of identification, with the motherhood divinity Maaram. Women petition Atete in dedicated rituals to be granted conception, a safe delivery and the general prosperity of their families and fields; the new mother's dignity is marked by the qanafa ornament worn at childbirth. Beyond fertility, Atete underwrites the siiqqee institution, in which married women carry a ritual staff and gather in assembly to denounce mistreatment and demand redress, so that the goddess stands as guarantor both of fecundity and of the social rights of women. In Oromo theology she is understood as a creation of, and subordinate to, the supreme Waaqa.