Home making

In hunter-gather cultures women were active in obtaining food for the community, participating in hunting and gathering alongside men and children in many cases.

Following the development of agriculture women were often in the fields alongside the men and children. Few families were wealthy enough that they could afford to maintain people who did not contribute at least part of their time to agriculture.

One of my favourite examples is from Europe in the Renaissance. Women earned trade qualifications, worked alongside men in those trades, and sometimes ran their own businesses.

They also had takeout food in medieval and renaissance Europe - a lot of women worked in the service industry providing takeout food then as now.

When industrialisation occurred women could often be found in factories alongside men and children.

The idea of the stay-at-home mother is quite a recent one and came about largely as a result of increasing material wealth. It was in fact a conspicuous demonstration of wealth to be able to show that some members of your family need only keep house and raise children. As wealth grew this phenomenon spread from the wealthy classes to the middle classes.

And then feminists came along and declared it to be oppressive. That it was good to engage in paid employment. More fool them.

I work because I have to not because I find it meaningful. I'd much rather spend my time engaging in creative activities and trying to make the world a better place. For most people paid employment means expending their labours to enrich others - often people they have never met. And yet so many people, men and women, have been convinced that it is a meaningful way to spend their time.