{"id":11806,"date":"2023-11-04T00:28:02","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T23:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agriculturelore.com\/?p=11806"},"modified":"2023-11-04T00:28:02","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T23:28:02","slug":"how-did-womens-roles-change-with-the-start-of-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agriculturelore.com\/how-did-womens-roles-change-with-the-start-of-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"How Did Women’s Roles Change With The Start Of Agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With the dawn of agriculture, women’s roles in society took on a whole new significance. Before the mass domestication of animals and crops, most hunter-gatherer societies were egalitarian in nature. Men and women had equal roles in foraging for food and running the daily operations of the society. When agriculture was adopted by early societies, a hierarchical structure formed to manage the labor and resources necessary for farming. Women took on more domestic roles than their male counterparts, and had less control over resources such as land and tools.<\/p>\n

Since farming was a labor-intensive activity, women’s physical strength was used to cultivate and harvest crops. This provided a source of food security, as well as a new role for women as producers of goods. This allowed them to gain more economic and social power within their communities than they had previously enjoyed. Women were also given responsibility for managing the stores of harvested goods, which provided them with a degree of autonomy over their households and among their peers.<\/p>\n

Despite the new powers that women had over their lives, they did not necessarily enjoy the same rights as men. The division of labor between the sexes was strictly defined and enforced, and women were often relegated to subordinate positions in the home and in the public sphere. This created a gender hierarchy that saw women held accountable for ensuring the daily operations of the household while men were seen as the sole providers of resources.<\/p>\n

Additionally, women had less control over resources such as land and tools. This was especially the case in societies where property rights were in the hands of men. This undermined the power that women had to provide for themselves and their families, as they lacked legal rights to control the land that they worked on and the tools they used.<\/p>\n