It's somewhat of a misconception that women did not work to produce food as men did. They did and do. An idle pair of hands was a luxury that only the rich coul

It's somewhat of a misconception that women did not work to produce food as men did. They did and do. An idle pair of hands was a luxury that only the rich could afford. The only reason that we think that there was such a disparity between the sexes is because our history is distorted by the perspective of the rich and privileged classes, who created an entirely separate world for themselves, while also contributing the most accounts of their time. We only remember those who were so well off that they had free time to indulge in the arts and sciences. Before mechanized agriculture and the green revolution, the vast majority of society was involved in the act of producing food. It had to be that way. People lived in a position of abject food insecurity. Failed harvests killed, and in particularly bad cases such as the great Irish Famine, wiped out vast quarters of the population. Beliefs are technologies. Just as an iPhone wouldn't work if you took it back in time (no electricity to charge it), most of our beliefs about how the world ought to be wouldn't work either (no food security to sustain them).