Describe symbolism in A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Society or the community during Martha's time was explained as similar to a blue
checkered cloth. The men and their businesses were symbolized by the blue squares; the women and their businesses were symbolized by the white squares. Those few squares including both colors are symbolic of the rare times in which the socially separate worlds of men and women overlapped.