I saw the meme, thought it was from lascivious lesbians, and thought this is amazing! I should post it on the womensstuff bylemmy, then saw it was on there. Ha.

Amazing nonetheless. Makes one ponder what other jobs we had in the past that were viable for avoiding marriage etc.

Would you want an intimate relationship with anyone before daily showers, deodorant, dental care, etc. existed?

Spinning wool is ridiculously meditative, too. I'd be down to do it as a job.

Soap has existed for millennia. Older than written history, possibly older than our species. And people are super precious about odor now. Strong smells are not necessarily bad smells.

Yeah, that particular insult always confused me. Because I knew what a spinster was.

I mean I wouldn't want to do that job. Very tedious. But if the choice were that job or literally risking my life every time my abusive husband wanted me to pop out another baby? Yeah, tedium beats death.

Brewing and selling ale (alewife). Petty retail (victuals, ale, household goods). Other textile work like weavers, seamstresses, embroiderers, silkwomen. Money-lending including pawn broking. Healing and midwifery. Book production and distribution (scribes, illuminators, book-sellers). Get this: blacksmithing and other such small industry.

Basically there were few blanket legal boundaries on what sole feme could do (though there was a bewildering array of guild regulations, local rules, etc.). The boundaries were mostly economic so they needed to be things with small capital outlay. But within that scene there were a whole lot of things independent women could do.