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No better than the herds of animals where the dominant male gets all the females and the other males just stand around.

From this Review of Compton's book on Joseph's polygamous wives

The Partridge Sisters: A Plural Marriage Case Study

According to Compton, the cases of Emily (19) and Eliza (22) Partridge contain elements common to many of Joseph’s plural marriage:

They had shared a home with Joseph and Emma before being approached about plural marriage, as did Sarah (17) and Maria (19) Lawrence, Fanny Alger (17), Melissa Lott (19), Elvira Cowles (29), Desdemonia Fuller (32), and Eliza Snow (38)
They were sworn to secrecy and told of the plural wife system as a new revelation from God before being specifically asked to marry Joseph Smith
Their initial reaction (when recorded) was often one of shock and at times revulsion (suggesting a strong moral upbringing and commitment to personal purity)
They viewed Smith as an infallible prophet of God
They were told by Smith the marriage was commanded by God
They were told that entering into plural marriage with him (Smith) would guarantee eternal life in the celestial kingdom for themselves and their immediate family
They had a physical marital relations with Smith but were never allowed to relate to Smith publicly as his wife
They were told to maintain strict secrecy about the relationship, especially when it came to Emma, Joseph’s first wife
Following Joseph’s death they were allowed to pick which of several LDS leaders they wanted to wed with most becoming plural wives of either Brigham Young or Heber C. Kimball
Their subsequent lives were characterized by marital isolation and loneliness offset at times by close relationships with "sister" wives

The conclusion of Compton’s chapter on Emily contains the following:

"Emily Partridge provides us with a classic example of the central pattern examined in this book: polygamy may be sacred in theory, but when practiced on a day-to-day basis the plural wife is not given financial or emotional support. In Nauvoo Joseph taught Emily the principle of plural, celestial marriage, and married her and Eliza, but then acquiesced to Emma’s browbeatings and consented to his new wives’ expulsion from his home. Then he allowed the marriages to lapse, apparently taking the unions less seriously than did the Partridges. It should be remembered that he had at least thirty other wives to turn to at the time. After Joseph’s death, Emily married Brigham Young in open polygamy, but from the beginning of the marriage to its end she was less than a full wife in his family. During the exodus from Nauvoo, the haunting image of the lonely wife standing with new-born baby in the snow shows Emily’s lack of practical marital support. . . . Her diary entries expressing her resentment form a significant document, a moving cri de coeur against a non-supportive polygamous husband. The fact that this husband was the prophet and president of the church added a note of cognitive dissonance to her journal, for her religion demanded that she see him as an inspired religious leader. Her words of praise for Brigham after his death show her highly developed capacity for Christian forgiveness" (p. 432).