Arts & Culture
Gendered Division of Labor in Horticultural versus Industrial Societies
Quick fact
In many horticultural societies, women provide up to 80% of the food through gardening, and their economic contribution gives them higher status and power than women in many industrial societies, where women's work is often unpaid or undervalued.
Why this is interesting
In some societies, women do most of the farming and men fish or hunt—yet in modern factories, the exact opposite seems to happen. Why would gender roles flip when people start using machines?