“That’s women’s’ work…” I threw the wet sponge in his direction. Had he not been laughing as he said it, I might have been tempted to throw something more substantial. There was a time, not so very long ago, when the roles of men and women were thus rigidly defined, and women continue to suffer the fallout from centuries of patriarchy, even today. But, I wondered, as I scrubbed the bathroom, where did the whole idea of gender roles come from, and what, in reality, might that mean?
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
Yes, I read something recently which asserted that the gender divide is a mediaeval institution. Maybe it was Bloody Brilliant Women by Cathy Newman.
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The book I’m thinking of starts with a prehistoric woman watching the young men throwing spears and asks to join in – they laugh at her attempts to throw as far as them. So she wishes her arms were longer, so she could throw further, then one day she picks up a stick and whittles it with flint, fits the end of the spear into it and throws it further than the men.
The book continues to follow women through the ages, where they do or make something that furthers the advance of technology.
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Two fictional examinations of this question and familial, communal and gender-based responsibilities in ancient cultures can be found in Margaret Elphinstone’s The Gathering Night and Claire Cameron’s The Last Neanderthal. Both well worth reading.
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Thanks, I’ll look them up. 🙂
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Thanks for that, Felicity 😃
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Thank you for sharing this, Chris 🙂 x
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My pleasure, Sue – I read a book many years ago (have been trying to find it again since) where it used the basis that Women, not Men, drove the advancement of the Human Race from prehistoric through historical times. ❤
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I’d lov eto know what it is, if you come across it again, Chris. x
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I’ll be happy to let you know once I find it, Sue ❤
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Cool! Thank you 🙂
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