One of the problems I have with such sentiments is that while probably most women were homemakers, most men had jobs like subsistence farmers. My father could

One of the problems I have with such sentiments is that while probably most women were homemakers, most men had jobs like subsistence farmers. My father could remember when his mother had no choice but to cook from scratch because they had no fridge and there were no prepackaged convenience foods and microwaves had not yet been invented. "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold" described a typical diet for a poor person of the time when that was written: A hot vegetarian meal with legumes, not meat, providing the protein for lunch and cold leftovers of the same for dinner. It was critical to the survival of the species for someone to cook regularly and it made sense for myriad reasons for it to be the mother, not the father, for most families. This was rooted in part in a lack of reliable birth control. Virginity until marriage and insisting the parents were responsible for the welfare of the children was the best we could do in most places on earth for much of human history. A lot of people lacked many things we think of as "basic" today, such as food security, hygiene and birth control. Such people probably mostly were not dreaming of intellectually interesting careers and having their name remembered by future generations. I'm glad to see we currently have the means for people to worry about such things. But it's a mistake to project such hopes and dreams overly much on people who often were dreaming much more humble dreams, like not starving to death this winter.