From my personal research of some local history, I've seen "farmer's wife" consistently listed as a woman's occupation from the 19th Century, in the same contex

From my personal research of some local history, I've seen "farmer's wife" consistently listed as a woman's occupation from the 19th Century, in the same context of terms like "schoolmistress". Conversely, there are probably occupations today, that wouldn't have been regarded as occupations previously. That's not taking into account all the handcrafted goods: half the stuff we buy, would've been made instead, and that proportion would probably increase the further back in time you go. But the labour to buy stuff is counted as worked hours, while made stuff isn't. That makes some sense in the perspective of economic exchanges, but not for many comparisons.