This is so ironic, i just came in from the patio where i was sitting to read a section on wome's history about the domestic life of 18th and 19th century women. The daily chores that women were responsible for - let alone the hoards of children they cared for - was just amazing. I used to ask my college students, "what did you do when you got up this morning?" If they said they "washed their face and brushed their teeth" we would then talk about how that would work if you lived in the 18th, 19th or first half of 20th century. Of course in those early yrs, pre-urbanization and industrialization, it meant carrying water from somewhere out side the house, having made some sort of material to use as a washcloth - carding, spinning, weaving, dying, and made soap, which is an awful, smelliy process, etc. etc. If they said they had breakfast - we'd have the same discussion - where did your oatmeal come from? where did your eggs and bacon come from? Those discussions took us back to planting and harvesting grain, taking care of chickens, pigs, beef; slaughtering, butchering, preserving, pickling, etc. etc. Of course, anyone of the lest means had a hired girl, and hired hands and the more wealth they had the more servants they had helping them. Upper-class women did little of their own spinning and weaving and little actual chores, but they learned the proper way to present a table and to carve meats - women's job at the time.
Most middle class families thru WWII had gardeners, launderesses, housecleaners, etc. My best friend's grandmother and great-aunt, who lived next door to us, made their living by "taking in laundry," they had a dozen or so constant clients. They had the curtain stretchers, a professional "flat iron" that ironed a big section of a sheet or large cloth all at a time. They were always ironing.
Today i was reading a particular section on midwifery and the change at the beginning of the 19th century to men - doctors - being involved w/ childbirth. Before that it was almost a total woman's community that were in the room during childbirth. Friends, family members, female neighbors stopped by to chat, share stories of their own experiences, tell jokes and bawdy stories. By the end of the 19th century it was almost always, at least in towns and cities, just the doctor and the patient. And docs were often far less experienced than the midwife had been, also pregnancy became to be considered more as an "illness."
And i come in here and there you are talking about the same subjects.
Great minds.........................jean
