Male professions in which women once shone

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the modern world, where women have received the right to vote and calmly walk in trousers, there is, nevertheless, a list of professions to which the weaker sex does not at all strive. Partly due to heavy physical exertion, sometimes due to the fact that the profession is primordially considered male. It is surprising that some of the works from this list once upon a time, on the contrary, were considered primordially female, but over time this situation has changed radically.

Potter

Pottery was one of the most ancient crafts in Russia. We have a stable stereotype associated with the fact that a man must necessarily sit at the potter's wheel, and this opinion is correct, because "circling" on a foot drive of an old design required quite a lot of physical effort, so it was true that most often the representatives of the stronger sex worked on it … However, historians say that the pottery wheel appeared among our ancestors only in the 9th-10th centuries, and even then it was used only in cities, and in the villages it appeared even later - by the 10th-11th centuries.

Before this heavy, albeit convenient, device was invented, kitchen utensils were sculpted from clay with just hands. This occupation was, in fact, a primordially feminine affair - it did not require heavy efforts, but on the other hand, each housewife could, at her discretion, "slap" just such a pot that would ideally suit her. So, most likely, the common shapes and proportions of dishes were once developed by women, and only later, with the help of a potter's wheel and male hands, the same pots, cups and bowls were made smoother and more even.

Caster

In this profession, even with a stretch, it is very difficult to imagine a woman. The only exception is probably the war years, when many difficult tasks fell on fragile shoulders. But now we are not talking about such forced measures, but about extremely distant times. The fact is that, studying the graves of the Slavs who lived around the 7th century and earlier, archaeologists often find tools for casting metal in female burials. This is explained as follows: in those days, heavy agricultural tools, weapons and other massive metal products were produced only by the forging method. Indeed, only men were blacksmiths - the same burials confirm this, their tools were heavy hammers and anvils, and women had nothing to do in this area.

And with the help of casting in the old days, only small objects were made: brooches - fasteners for fabric, spindle - weights in the form of a disk or cylinder with a through hole, which were needed to weight the spindle and, of course, decoration. The shower procedure itself was not difficult, but it required perseverance. The model of the future object was first molded from wax, then coated with clay and burned - the wax was melted, and the clay mold remained, then molten metal was poured into it. Most often, these were light, not refractory alloys; an ordinary home oven was enough to work with them. But by the XII-XIII centuries, when large objects began to be “cast”, this profession migrated into men's hands.

Brewer

Today, it is widely believed that women are more suited to serving beer mugs, serving beer drinkers, and only men should be involved in making it. From time immemorial, everything was different. Even in Ancient Egypt, the goddess Tenene was known - the patroness of women who prepare a product similar to beer. This case, accordingly, was purely female. Among the ancient Sumerians, the goddess Ninkasi was responsible for beer and other alcoholic beverages. Among the Scandinavians in the old days, the hostess was considered good only if she knew how to brew good beer, and the ancient Vikings, as you know, did not leave home without supplies of this drink, because on long voyages, beer, unlike water, did not spoil for a long time. So this skill could be considered strategically important.

Historians believe that in those days people did not separate weak intoxicated drinks from the rest of the food - they were a necessary part of the meal, therefore it was women who were responsible for beer, as well as for bread. They used it, by the way, then, too, on a par with men. Today, the stereotypes imposed on us force us to divide drinks into "women" and "men", although this is not always historically justified - it is worth remembering the musketeers - lovers of sweet Angevin wine, or hussars drinking champagne in buckets.

Corsetry master

Today it is already difficult for us to delve into all the subtleties of this matter, since corsets have become an anachronism over the past hundred years. Sometimes this detail of the toilet tries to conquer the fashionable Olympus again, but people are no longer as inclined as before to endure physical inconveniences, so looser clothes are still in trend. At the same time, when decent (and not so) ladies without a corset could not go out into the street, this sphere was a real "gold mine". So many corsets were required that in the second half of the 19th century, the bowhead whale population suffered due to the fashionable hobby. Corset workshops, accordingly, flourished in all corners of the world.

Initially, these "ladies' things" were made only by women seamstresses, like all other clothes for ladies, but later the men decided to conquer this profitable market. Explaining the fact that sewing a corset requires complex technological operations and great precision, in some countries laws have even been passed prohibiting women from doing this difficult task. Gradually, corset workshops passed completely into men's hands, and by the end of the 19th century, only the stronger sex was engaged in this business.

There are professions that, it seems, can only be envied. For example, such unusual professions in the world of food and alcohol when it is required, in fulfilling one's professional duties, not only to work, but also to eat and drink.