Mary Collier’s poem The Woman’s Labour (1739) rebutted Stephen Duck’s attempt to trivialise women’s participation in labour (The Thresher’s Labour, 1730). Mary’s was an epic take-down-hilarious and spot-on. Mary herself was a labourer who worked as a washing woman as well as working in the fields during harvest. She never married, paid ro have her poems published, and eventually owned her own mill. She lived a long life (not bearing children was one factor, since pregnancy and delivery resulted in high maternity rates).
Not many women of her time who were working class had the time, education, or means to write and publish, so it’s meaningful that we have the testimony of one such woman straight from her mind. She explains how hard it is to labour in the fields all day, only to return home and start the second job: cooking, cleaning, family care (while the men returned home, put their feet up, had a drink by the fire and waited to be served dinner, prepared by a woman). Women today have progressed little since Mary’s day.
Pregnancy almost always results in a maternity rate, so it’s not wrong. But yeah, I assumed mortality too as child birth is terrifyingly dangerous. That’s why it’s left to the women.
I'm glad you didn't give up on this article and shared it now. Our family's ancestors are proof of this heavy labor by women, and I've witnessed it in other countries as I've studied there. When will we see the wide variety of labor and value each?
Brilliant article. In some circles, there’s the nostalgia to return back to the land in a traditional Christian or Mormon way - like Ballerina Farm. But I think that were it not for the fact that the lady there married a hubby with tons of money and they can employ lots of people to help…she would have toil pretty hard alongside him to get the farm up and running. As any homesteader knows! It’s all hands on deck.
Also, not mentioned in this article is the fact that women probably also did a ton of heavy lifting while on their period (or even in early stages of labour). Somewhere I read they had done studies hooking men’s genitals up to some kind of pain-producing machine to simulate period pain and childbirth and they couldn’t handle it lol. To really “control for all factors” in an experimental study, we would need to simulate genital pain once a month for men and then compare heavy lifting capacity across the sexes 😂😂
Thank you! The whole Ballerina Farm fantasy makes absolutely no sense. Historically, wealthy white women didn’t do all the cooking and cleaning themselves, and those who weren’t wealthy were too busy with relentless farm labour to spend their time baking sourdough bread... This kind of content doesn’t even romanticise traditional ways of living, it’s just an illusion dressed up in nostalgia.
Yes, your title words are so true and, extremely sadly, remain so today.
That women are seen by so many men by focus on two areas of their bodies and, at that, only when they find those areas arousing or an ingrained reaction to negative and destructive conditioning and almost always focused on a stereotypical image of what is desirable - usually limited by age, is both mentally and physically obscene and indicative of the lack of progress in both male and female understanding of one another's human biological, physiological and mental experience and understanding and the massive variation in their conditioning towards certain attitudes, views, beliefs and character of the opposite sex - let alone those who fit neither of the traditional view of two biological genders.
There remains a mountain of 'normalised' or accepted discrimination of girls and women in our societies, sexual availability being at the heart of most of it and facilitating the continuing and highly dangerous myth for females that a relationship with a male will be what brings them safety, security, caring, compassion, encouragement - indeed, the very being of positive womanhood. Marriage is one of the most hypocritical and damaging elements of that false narrative that pervades most societies and is propped up by socialisation which fantasises the delirium of 'that special day', of 'romance', 'of love', of commitment - all of which often either never actually exist or disappear with amazing rapidity to leave only bruises, scars, loneliness, destruction of self-worth, relative poverty, hardship or even death by partner.
The failure to acknowledge, reward and account for the unpaid work that is predominantly, (except perhaps where slavery still exists for both sexes and any gender), done by women is one of the most significant elements contributing to the 'glass ceiling', false views of female worth and capability, and obsolescent - always false - views of female intellect, insight, caring and other characteristics. Reinforced obscenely by religion, a false picture of the female and her role has been painted by most religions, not least Christianity. Social norms and indoctrinated attitudes, not least those of institutions, government and the media have entrenched such.
No, I don't know the actual worth that the unpaid work of females contributes to what is apparently the primary measure, today, of any society, i.e. money. What I do know is that it must be enormous and, even then, fails to recognise the many other attributes, intellect and contributions that female human beings contribute to society.
As ought to be evident from the above and despite that I am unable to express it in an erudite fashion, the issue is complex. That doesn't mean that it can't or oughtn't to change. On the contrary, it is long past time that human beings achieved a level of significant humane and truthful appreciation and support for all human beings, for all have something to offer and by no means the least are females.
Girls and women ought to be respected for who they are and of what they are capable, at least just as much as for their 'feminity' or 'beauty' and possession of a birth canal and mammary glands to which, after puberty, males seem obsessed and regard as representing the major worth of the female sex.
That's my view. I apologise for all that I've failed to include, such as the almost total absence of females in the historical narrative of high achievements that are well celebrated, remembered and applauded when achieved by men.
It is long past time for change and that humanity has not yet reached that stage in any more than a tinkling around the edge of the calamity, is a savage indictment on the dominance of hypocritcal attitude by social influencers, the media and government policies;
Thank you, I appreciate your taking the time and making the effort to let me know.
I had intended to write more but thought I should stop, given that it was just a comment. However, given your kindness and interest, you and others may be interested to know that there are many authoritative estimates of what all unpaid work, if measured at just the minimum wage, would be worth. Globally, some $10.1 Trillion. Women being responsible for the major component of that figure.
A few useful web addresses which detail more about this:
I have always been in awe and amazed at how hard women work then and now. They remind me of donkeys always carrying the greatest burden. I love donkeys by the way I’ve always been an ass man I guess. But my hats off to women maybe if men did as much as women maybe there wouldn’t be wars and violence against women and children maybe it would be a perfect world then maybe it might be totally different but I would love to see in my life women who are treated as equals paid as equals and love as equals. Women will rule this world and I hope I live long enough to see it
Having a discussion with two female friends we arrived at a question we couldn't answer ... where did patriarchy and misogyny originate and why? We speculated religion is the origin as it's rife with both including the repeated story of Adam & Eve (Eve as the original 'sinner') and prominent in ALL religions. The WHY also remains a mystery. It really appears to be just a 'human' thing as it isn't repeated in nature. If men could conceive and bare children (and look after them) would that change attitudes? Is life but a pointless competition? While society has advanced on a number of levels this strong bias remains - as does all versions of discriminatory religions. We can go to the moon (including with female astronauts and scientists) but still struggle with the religion of patriarchy & misogyny... hallelujah!!!
I've had a book on my wishlist for a while called The patriarchs by Angela Saini. I can't tell you if it's any good but I listened to an interview with the author on a podcast and it sounds like it will be really good. All around how patriarchy historically wasn't always the way of the world.
Love this! Thank you! I have a picture of my ancestors in Sweden. They worked on a farm as serfs. The women and the men worked side-by-side farming land for the baron, and then after hours farming a small plot of land that the baron gave to them for their own use. They used scythes and shovels and this part of Sweden was very rocky. My great grandmother suffered from back pain in the later years of her life.
My grandmother also worked on that farm until she immigrated to the United States when she was 18 to become a live in maid.
One of the most aggravating comments I heard from men as I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s, was that women spent their days at home eating bonbons.
My undergraduate degree is in home economics. Not only was it a very useful degree but it was one of the most difficult courses of study, including three semesters of chemistry, physiology, microbiology, advanced math as well as the classes I took in interior design, food science, child development, clothing design, and tailoring. Yet my degree was always denigrated because feminine skills are considered less valuable.
Thank you for the time and skill that went into writing this excellent article. Sometimes I get disheartened as an old feminist who worked hard to create new opportunities for myself, and the women born after me. It seems feminists are now blamed for all the ills of society, and few women want to embrace our cause. Then I come across an article like yours that is so beautifully written and I feel hopeful again. ❤️
Great article exploring the vicious circle of “women’s work.” In agriculture in particular, as you point out, the contributions of women are defined as less valuable—in many agrarian societies in Africa, crops are literally divided into “men’s” and “women’s” crops, with women allocated the less rewarding labor, despite contributing most of the agricultural labor. The linkage is explicit: when “women’s” crops become more profitable (cash crops vs. subsistence) they become “men’s” crops. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468227623003174#:~:text=However%2C%20Doss%20%5B12%5D%20found,8%5D%20and%20Shibata%20et%20al.)
It’s easier to see in those systems, but the same principle is clearly at work in our system—why else would the dangerous, important, and difficult professions you mention be so chronically underpaid and overworked?
Reading this article brought me into a contemplation of injustice, yet it ended with an empowering conclusion and it truly made my day. Thank you always for sharing your thoughts through your writings
“We continue to undervalue women’s work [… including] female-dominated professions (which tend to pay less than male-dominated ones)”. New Zealand’s government has just announced a law change under urgency that will make it harder for women to get the pay equity they deserve. How have they done that? By making it so that you can only file a claim and compare pay within your own profession ONLY, not anything else. E.g. nurses filing for pay equity can only use other nurses pay as proof to their claim. That’s what this made me think of.
"And then, ideally, dismantle the idea that it’s normal to have to work ourselves to death just to (barely) survive." Such an excellent article, ending with an excellent point. I've been researching where, when and how obedience became normalized, and finding the trade-off for men was domination over women in exchange for obedience to the hier-archons. I wonder if they now think it was a good trade, when the time of both genders has been usurped.
Thank you for your article. I would invite you to look at the work and lives of what you consider the upper percentile of women and to recognize that these lives were existent by women of different colors and nationalities. Again enjoyed your thoughtful article
Mary Collier’s poem The Woman’s Labour (1739) rebutted Stephen Duck’s attempt to trivialise women’s participation in labour (The Thresher’s Labour, 1730). Mary’s was an epic take-down-hilarious and spot-on. Mary herself was a labourer who worked as a washing woman as well as working in the fields during harvest. She never married, paid ro have her poems published, and eventually owned her own mill. She lived a long life (not bearing children was one factor, since pregnancy and delivery resulted in high maternity rates).
Not many women of her time who were working class had the time, education, or means to write and publish, so it’s meaningful that we have the testimony of one such woman straight from her mind. She explains how hard it is to labour in the fields all day, only to return home and start the second job: cooking, cleaning, family care (while the men returned home, put their feet up, had a drink by the fire and waited to be served dinner, prepared by a woman). Women today have progressed little since Mary’s day.
Collier's response was brilliant. But it's chilling that so many of her observations still ring true today.
mortality rates? but I suppose pregnancy & delivery also results in high maternity rates hahah
Pregnancy almost always results in a maternity rate, so it’s not wrong. But yeah, I assumed mortality too as child birth is terrifyingly dangerous. That’s why it’s left to the women.
I'm glad you didn't give up on this article and shared it now. Our family's ancestors are proof of this heavy labor by women, and I've witnessed it in other countries as I've studied there. When will we see the wide variety of labor and value each?
Thank you, Hans! It really is long overdue that we open our eyes to all the work women have always done, and still do, often without much recognition.
Brilliant article. In some circles, there’s the nostalgia to return back to the land in a traditional Christian or Mormon way - like Ballerina Farm. But I think that were it not for the fact that the lady there married a hubby with tons of money and they can employ lots of people to help…she would have toil pretty hard alongside him to get the farm up and running. As any homesteader knows! It’s all hands on deck.
Also, not mentioned in this article is the fact that women probably also did a ton of heavy lifting while on their period (or even in early stages of labour). Somewhere I read they had done studies hooking men’s genitals up to some kind of pain-producing machine to simulate period pain and childbirth and they couldn’t handle it lol. To really “control for all factors” in an experimental study, we would need to simulate genital pain once a month for men and then compare heavy lifting capacity across the sexes 😂😂
Thank you! The whole Ballerina Farm fantasy makes absolutely no sense. Historically, wealthy white women didn’t do all the cooking and cleaning themselves, and those who weren’t wealthy were too busy with relentless farm labour to spend their time baking sourdough bread... This kind of content doesn’t even romanticise traditional ways of living, it’s just an illusion dressed up in nostalgia.
Yes, your title words are so true and, extremely sadly, remain so today.
That women are seen by so many men by focus on two areas of their bodies and, at that, only when they find those areas arousing or an ingrained reaction to negative and destructive conditioning and almost always focused on a stereotypical image of what is desirable - usually limited by age, is both mentally and physically obscene and indicative of the lack of progress in both male and female understanding of one another's human biological, physiological and mental experience and understanding and the massive variation in their conditioning towards certain attitudes, views, beliefs and character of the opposite sex - let alone those who fit neither of the traditional view of two biological genders.
There remains a mountain of 'normalised' or accepted discrimination of girls and women in our societies, sexual availability being at the heart of most of it and facilitating the continuing and highly dangerous myth for females that a relationship with a male will be what brings them safety, security, caring, compassion, encouragement - indeed, the very being of positive womanhood. Marriage is one of the most hypocritical and damaging elements of that false narrative that pervades most societies and is propped up by socialisation which fantasises the delirium of 'that special day', of 'romance', 'of love', of commitment - all of which often either never actually exist or disappear with amazing rapidity to leave only bruises, scars, loneliness, destruction of self-worth, relative poverty, hardship or even death by partner.
The failure to acknowledge, reward and account for the unpaid work that is predominantly, (except perhaps where slavery still exists for both sexes and any gender), done by women is one of the most significant elements contributing to the 'glass ceiling', false views of female worth and capability, and obsolescent - always false - views of female intellect, insight, caring and other characteristics. Reinforced obscenely by religion, a false picture of the female and her role has been painted by most religions, not least Christianity. Social norms and indoctrinated attitudes, not least those of institutions, government and the media have entrenched such.
No, I don't know the actual worth that the unpaid work of females contributes to what is apparently the primary measure, today, of any society, i.e. money. What I do know is that it must be enormous and, even then, fails to recognise the many other attributes, intellect and contributions that female human beings contribute to society.
As ought to be evident from the above and despite that I am unable to express it in an erudite fashion, the issue is complex. That doesn't mean that it can't or oughtn't to change. On the contrary, it is long past time that human beings achieved a level of significant humane and truthful appreciation and support for all human beings, for all have something to offer and by no means the least are females.
Girls and women ought to be respected for who they are and of what they are capable, at least just as much as for their 'feminity' or 'beauty' and possession of a birth canal and mammary glands to which, after puberty, males seem obsessed and regard as representing the major worth of the female sex.
That's my view. I apologise for all that I've failed to include, such as the almost total absence of females in the historical narrative of high achievements that are well celebrated, remembered and applauded when achieved by men.
It is long past time for change and that humanity has not yet reached that stage in any more than a tinkling around the edge of the calamity, is a savage indictment on the dominance of hypocritcal attitude by social influencers, the media and government policies;
I appreciate reading your thoughtful response.
Thank you, I appreciate your taking the time and making the effort to let me know.
I had intended to write more but thought I should stop, given that it was just a comment. However, given your kindness and interest, you and others may be interested to know that there are many authoritative estimates of what all unpaid work, if measured at just the minimum wage, would be worth. Globally, some $10.1 Trillion. Women being responsible for the major component of that figure.
A few useful web addresses which detail more about this:
https://apec.org/publications/2022/03/unpaid-care-and-domestic-work-counting-the-costs
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/04/opinion/women-unpaid-labor.html
https://qz.com/the-economic-case-against-unpaid-domestic-work-1849572829
Thanks again - hope the additional info is useful to you.
I learned so much from this article, thank you! I can't wait to share what I learned with others.
Really appreciate that—so glad it was helpful!
I have always been in awe and amazed at how hard women work then and now. They remind me of donkeys always carrying the greatest burden. I love donkeys by the way I’ve always been an ass man I guess. But my hats off to women maybe if men did as much as women maybe there wouldn’t be wars and violence against women and children maybe it would be a perfect world then maybe it might be totally different but I would love to see in my life women who are treated as equals paid as equals and love as equals. Women will rule this world and I hope I live long enough to see it
Your articles are always so salient - Thanks.
Having a discussion with two female friends we arrived at a question we couldn't answer ... where did patriarchy and misogyny originate and why? We speculated religion is the origin as it's rife with both including the repeated story of Adam & Eve (Eve as the original 'sinner') and prominent in ALL religions. The WHY also remains a mystery. It really appears to be just a 'human' thing as it isn't repeated in nature. If men could conceive and bare children (and look after them) would that change attitudes? Is life but a pointless competition? While society has advanced on a number of levels this strong bias remains - as does all versions of discriminatory religions. We can go to the moon (including with female astronauts and scientists) but still struggle with the religion of patriarchy & misogyny... hallelujah!!!
I've had a book on my wishlist for a while called The patriarchs by Angela Saini. I can't tell you if it's any good but I listened to an interview with the author on a podcast and it sounds like it will be really good. All around how patriarchy historically wasn't always the way of the world.
I've read it, it's good.
Neolithic cultures were mostly matriarchal and matrilineal, so it wasn't always like this
Thx. I'll check it out!
There’s a few books on this -
When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone
Matriarchy and the Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner
A Brief Complete Herstory by Renée Gerlich
Excellent! Great to see this issue is being tackled. Lot’s of reading ahead.
Love this! Thank you! I have a picture of my ancestors in Sweden. They worked on a farm as serfs. The women and the men worked side-by-side farming land for the baron, and then after hours farming a small plot of land that the baron gave to them for their own use. They used scythes and shovels and this part of Sweden was very rocky. My great grandmother suffered from back pain in the later years of her life.
My grandmother also worked on that farm until she immigrated to the United States when she was 18 to become a live in maid.
One of the most aggravating comments I heard from men as I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s, was that women spent their days at home eating bonbons.
My undergraduate degree is in home economics. Not only was it a very useful degree but it was one of the most difficult courses of study, including three semesters of chemistry, physiology, microbiology, advanced math as well as the classes I took in interior design, food science, child development, clothing design, and tailoring. Yet my degree was always denigrated because feminine skills are considered less valuable.
Thank you for the time and skill that went into writing this excellent article. Sometimes I get disheartened as an old feminist who worked hard to create new opportunities for myself, and the women born after me. It seems feminists are now blamed for all the ills of society, and few women want to embrace our cause. Then I come across an article like yours that is so beautifully written and I feel hopeful again. ❤️
Thank you for sharing your family's story! I’m really glad my article could offer you some hope ❤️
Fantastic article. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Great article exploring the vicious circle of “women’s work.” In agriculture in particular, as you point out, the contributions of women are defined as less valuable—in many agrarian societies in Africa, crops are literally divided into “men’s” and “women’s” crops, with women allocated the less rewarding labor, despite contributing most of the agricultural labor. The linkage is explicit: when “women’s” crops become more profitable (cash crops vs. subsistence) they become “men’s” crops. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468227623003174#:~:text=However%2C%20Doss%20%5B12%5D%20found,8%5D%20and%20Shibata%20et%20al.)
It’s easier to see in those systems, but the same principle is clearly at work in our system—why else would the dangerous, important, and difficult professions you mention be so chronically underpaid and overworked?
A fantastic and important read. Thank you!!
Reading this article brought me into a contemplation of injustice, yet it ended with an empowering conclusion and it truly made my day. Thank you always for sharing your thoughts through your writings
That means so much, thank you!!
While getting none of the credit.
“We continue to undervalue women’s work [… including] female-dominated professions (which tend to pay less than male-dominated ones)”. New Zealand’s government has just announced a law change under urgency that will make it harder for women to get the pay equity they deserve. How have they done that? By making it so that you can only file a claim and compare pay within your own profession ONLY, not anything else. E.g. nurses filing for pay equity can only use other nurses pay as proof to their claim. That’s what this made me think of.
"And then, ideally, dismantle the idea that it’s normal to have to work ourselves to death just to (barely) survive." Such an excellent article, ending with an excellent point. I've been researching where, when and how obedience became normalized, and finding the trade-off for men was domination over women in exchange for obedience to the hier-archons. I wonder if they now think it was a good trade, when the time of both genders has been usurped.
And dismantling the empire of the mind is right up my alley: https://www.amazon.com/How-Dismantle-Empire-2020-Vision/dp/1733347607. Thanks to LoWa for sending me here!
Thank you for your article. I would invite you to look at the work and lives of what you consider the upper percentile of women and to recognize that these lives were existent by women of different colors and nationalities. Again enjoyed your thoughtful article