Memory Alpha wrote:

One influence on the Ferengi was what Herb Wright described as Gene Roddenberry's "sex fetish." In early first season discussions between them about developing the Ferengi, Roddenberry let Wright know it was his intention to make the species well-endowed. "He wanted to put a gigantic codpiece on the Ferengi," Wright stated. "He spent 25 minutes explaining to me all the sexual positions the Ferengi could go through. I finally said, 'Gene, this is a family show, on at 7:00 on Saturdays. He finally said, 'Okay, you're right.'" (Cinefantastique, Vol. 23, No. 2/3, pp. 60-61) With Roddenberry's approval, the development of the new species got underway. (Star Trek: The Next Generation 365, p. 36)

The word "Ferengi" was derived from the Arabic and Persian word faranji (written ?????), which meant "frank", as in the Frankish/European traders who made contact with Arabic traders; the word later came to mean "foreigner" in general, though in modern Arabic, it is generally restricted to the meaning "European". Thus, Robert Hewitt Wolfe stated, "Ferengi is, after all, the Persian word for foreigner, particularly for European." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 114)

The Ferengi were imagined as being so fearsome that they are referred to, in TNG pilot "Encounter at Farpoint", as having eaten their previous business associates. (The Art of Star Trek, p. 94) This stemmed from an attempt to make them seem "more dangerous", though Wright worried this level of disgust would distract from the larger relatable moral issues of greed they were supposed to embody. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 17, pp. 30-32)

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Additionally, Shimerman admitted, "It's one of the great disappointments of my life that it didn't flesh out to be exactly what Gene Roddenberry had wanted it to be." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 12, p. 54) Behr proclaimed, "Was there ever an alien race on Star Trek that did not work more than the Ferengi when they were introduced? It was a disaster." ("Quark's Story", DS9 Season 2 DVD special features) He elaborated, "I think I'm not saying anything out of school by telling you that the idea of lethal Ferengi was kind of a bust. The Ferengi are not the Klingons or the Romulans. They were minor villians at best." (AOL chat, 1997) Likewise, Wil Wheaton has stated that the Ferengi were "probably the lamest enemy ever introduced in the history of television." [3] Maurice Hurley critiqued, "The Ferengi were just terrible. They were like pests. It was like making a villain out of a housefly." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 21, No. 2, p. 27) Hurley criticized further, "I still think the Ferengi were a waste of time. Goofy. No bushido involved; it was a joke. We had these arguments from the beginning. I was the lone voice screaming in the wilderness. If somebody's interested in gold, they're not much of an adversary. If we can make gold in our replicator–and we can–then it's like sand at the beach in Santa Monica. Who cares? Give 'em all the sand that they want. Get them out of here. They want gold? Here, take a truck load and get out." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, pp. 158 & 160) Rick Berman concurred that the Ferengi didn't "measure-up to the level of villainy intended." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 21, No. 2, p. 35) In fact, he believed they had a high "silliness quotient" so they were a "disappointment as a major adversary." (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 3rd ed., p. 41) On the other hand, Producer Robert H. Justman thought the Ferengi worked best when they were first introduced. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 12, p. 21) Michael Piller remarked, "There's a big difference of opinion about the Ferengi." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 21, No. 2, p. 35) Nonetheless, TNG's audience was uninterested in the notion of Picard regularly having confrontations with a race of cutthroat capitalists. (Star Trek: The Next Generation 365, p. 36)

Memory Alpha wrote:

Ferengi women were referred to as "females." They were barred from most aspects of society, such as not being allowed to earn profit or to travel. Neither were they allowed to learn how to read. (DS9: "Rules of Acquisition") They were not even allowed to wear clothes and were expected to be undressed at all times, to the point where while a Ferengi male would consider clothed alien women to be normal, the thought of their own mother wearing clothes would make them uncomfortable. "Thinking about things", as Quark once put it, was neither something expected nor desired of females. Neither was having opinions or political views. They further were not allowed to have any claim to the estate of a husband should the marriage end, as all females were generally required to sign a Waiver of Property and Profit, giving up any such claim. (DS9: "Ferengi Love Songs")

If a woman was caught earning profit, she was forced to give back all she had earned and either sign a confession, admitting the error of her ways, or be sold to indentured servitude if she refused. Her male relatives would then have to make restitution. A woman's oldest male relative was considered to be legally in control of her and thus responsible for her actions, such as her husband or the oldest son. (DS9: "Family Business")

Marriage, like everything else in Ferengi culture, was a business contract, signed between the prospective groom and the bride's father, in which the father leased his daughter to the groom for a set period (usually five years) for an agreed fee, paid on the birth of a son. (DS9: "Doctor Bashir, I Presume") Pregnancies were considered rentals under Ferengi law, with the father being the lessee. (DS9: "Nor the Battle to the Strong")

As described by Quark, in a marriage "on the Ferengi homeworld, husbands and wives never argue. There's no divorce, no broken homes – nothing but peaceful, conjugal bliss." (DS9: "Fascination")

In addition to being forbidden to earn profit and own property, Ferengi females were not allowed to wear clothes, leave their homes without male escort, or speak to males they were not related to. Their role as caregiver to the male children of a family was strictly defined. Mothers were expected to teach their children the Rules of Acquisition (and as they themselves were not allowed to read meant they had to know the Rules by heart), and to soften their male children's food by chewing it for them. (TNG: "The Last Outpost", "Ménage à Troi"; DS9: "Life Support", "Family Business") Because of this, Ferengi males were often very protective and loving of their mothers, and this was even reflected in the Rules of Acquisition; Rule 31 was "Never make fun of a Ferengi's Mother." (DS9: "The Siege")