Even in the high civilization of the Jews this wide scope of the housewife prevailed.  Read what the wisest, perhaps because most married, of men says: 

  She seeketh wool and flax,
  And worketh willingly with her hands. 
  She is like the merchant ships;
  She bringeth her food from afar. 
  She considereth a field, and buyeth it. 
  With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. 
  She girdeth her loins with strength,
  And maketh strong her arms. 
  She perceiveth that her merchandise is good. 
  Her lamp goeth not out by night. 
  She layeth her hands to the distaff
  And her hands hold the spindle.

* * * * *

She is not afraid of the snow for her household: 
For all her household are clothed with scarlet. 
She maketh for herself coverlets,
She maketh linen garments and selleth them,
And delivereth girdles unto the merchants.

No wonder “her children rise up and call her blessed” and it is somewhat condescending of her husband when he “praiseth her.”  All we learn of him is that he “is known in the gates when he sitteth among the elders of the land.”  With a wife like her, this was all he had to do.

This combination of industrialism and domesticity continued until gradually men stepped into the field of work, perhaps as a result of their wives’ example, and became farmers on a larger scale, merchants of a wider scope, artisans, handicraftsmen, guild members of a more developed technique.  Woman started these things in the home or near it; man, through his restless energy, specialized and thus developed an intenser civilization.  But even up till the nineteenth century woman carried on all her occupations at the home, which still continued to be workshop and hearth.

Then man invented the machine, harnessed steam, wired electricity, and there was born the Factory, the specialized house of industry, in which there works no artisan, only factory hands.  The home could not compete with this man’s monster, into which flowed one river of raw material and out of which poured another of finished products.  But not only did the factory dye, weave, spin, tan, etc.; it also invaded the innermost sphere of woman’s work.  For her loaf of bread it turned out thousands, until finally she is beginning to give up baking; for her hit-or-miss jellies, preserves, jams, it invented scientific canning with absolute methods, handy forms, tempting flavors.  And canning did not stop there; meats, soups, vegetables, fruits are now placed in the hands of the housewife “Ready to Serve,” until the cynical now state, “Woman is no longer a cook, she is a can opener.”  With all the talk in this modern time of women invading man’s field, it is just to remark that man has stepped into woman’s work and carried off a huge part of it to his own creation, the factory.

Thus it has come to pass that in our day the housewife does but little dyeing, spinning, weaving, is no longer a handicraftsman, and in addition is turning over a large part of her food preparation and cooking to the factory.