ABSTRACT
Historically, the childbearing role of women set certain expectations and limits on their lives and activities which seemed inevitable and immutable. Pregnancy and lactation represented primary social survival functions which precluded extensive participation in other activities such as meeting needs for food, shelter, and safety, or later, providing income to obtain these things, as well as participation in governance. The fact that women generally have less muscle mass and physical strength than men also contributed to the development of distinct images of men and women, and to the traditional gender-based division of labor whereby men were responsible for such external and "instrumental" activities as hunting, fighting, building, and organizing society, while women stayed close to home and carried out supportive or "expressive" tasks such as food preparation and home-tending, as well as work related to child care. These patterns were virtually universal among early societies.
