#this section is definitely reminding me of “Eve in Exile”

[cultivating-wildflowers]

"The rights of woman," says Dr. Peck, "considered in the economic sphere, seem to involve her in competition with men in the struggle for jobs." It does seem so indeed, and this is hardly to be wondered at; for the competition began to appear when the men took over the women's jobs by transferring them from the home to the factory. The mediaeval woman had effective power and a measure of real (though not political) equality, for she had control of many industries -- spinning, weaving, baking, brewing, distilling, perfumery, preserving, pickling -- in which she worked with head as well as hands, in command of her own domestic staff. But now the control and direction -- all the intelligent part -- of those industries have gone to the men, and the women have been left, not with their "proper" work but with employment in those occupations. And at the same time, they are exhorted to be feminine and return to the home from which all intelligent occupation has been steadily removed.

Dorothy L. Sayers, Are Women Human?