Homemaker History Traditional societies
In societies where people are 'hunters and gatherers', for example the traditional society of the Australian aboriginal people, it is the men who do the hunting of animals for meat, and the women who do the gathering of other types of food such as grain, fruit and vegetables. One of the reasons is that a married woman usually had children and babies for a large part of her life. It is much easier to gather fruit with a baby on your hip or back than to hunt a fast-moving animal. So the men were able to raise up sons and daughters and the life of the community could continue into another generation. Even in a society where homes were very simple and people did not own very many things, men and women did different jobs. Babies live very close to their mothers so that they can be kept warm.