The Fellowship of the Fourth Age (Part 1): A New Beginning Discussion Thread

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Originally Posted by Brinniel

- it's more likely that the males were doing the most physical labor, working in the plantations.

I don't know about this Brinniel. A woman's role is effected by the culture she lives in and her place in that society. I remember my utter astonishment to see road and construction crews in rural India, which were predominately female. For instance the men would mix cement and load it into pans that the women would carry up ladders and onto rooves etc. Another man or two would oversee and perform the more skilled part of the operation, but the women were definitely the grunt labor. On road crews the work was just as cruelling and the women would rig their infants in makesift hammocks by the side of the road while they 'manhandled' piles of gravel and stones. A lot of these women didn't seem very young or hardy to me, but they certainly had endurance!

It was an eye opener to me.