Women have always worked—sometimes inside the home and sometimes outside the home. Sometimes with respect for what they were doing and sometimes without respect. But, women have always worked.
That’s the conclusion of Elizabeth Wayland Barber in her book Women’s Work—The First 20,000 Years.
In Europe during the Neolithic and Early Bronze ages, there was a courtyard economy. Women did their weaving outside in good weather while their children played nearby. Women cooked and made clothing because these jobs were “compatible with simultaneous child watching.”
