When we picture the architects of our modern economy, who comes to mind? We see industrialists in top hats, bankers in boardrooms, and perhaps legions of men in flat caps marching out of factories. The story of economic history, as it’s almost always been told, is a story about men. It is a narrative of male innovation, male labour, and male genius.

And according to historian Dr Victoria Bateman, it is a monumental falsehood.

In a compelling episode of the Explaining History podcast, Dr Bateman discusses her new book, Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power, a hugely ambitious project that reframes our entire understanding of wealth creation. The central argument is as simple as it is revolutionary: you cannot understand the history of the economy without centering the lives and labour of women. To leave them out is not just an omission; it’s a distortion that renders the entire picture false.

Smashing the Myth of the Housewife

One of the most persistent falsehoods is the idea that women’s entry into the formal economy is a recent phenomenon, a product of the World Wars or the feminist waves of the 20th century. Before that, the story goes, women were confined to the domestic sphere as housewives and homemakers. As Dr Bateman powerfully argues in the podcast, this is “one of the biggest myths of history and one myth that deserves to be smashed.”

The historical record is clear: women have always worked, and they have always worked hard. Dr Bateman provides vivid examples, from women brewing beer in medieval London (where they made up 40% of the brewers’ guild in the early 15th century) to their labour building pyramids in ancient Egypt and plumbing in ancient Rome. The modern concept of the full-time housewife is largely a construct of post-industrial prosperity, an ideal created and sustained by a specific set of economic conditions in the 19th and 20th centuries, not an eternal reality. Historians like Alice Kessler-Harris have detailed how this idealization of domesticity in the Victorian era served to push women out of professions and trades they had long occupied, confining them to a narrow band of low-paid work like textiles and domestic service.

The Invisible Engine of the Global Economy

Even more profound is Dr Bateman’s focus on the work that has been systematically rendered invisible: unpaid care. Today, an estimated two billion people worldwide provide the equivalent of full-time unpaid labour, from raising children to caring for the elderly. Three-quarters of them are women.

Feminist economists have calculated that if this labour were assigned a monetary value, it would account for between 20% and 60% of global GDP. As Dr Bateman puts it, ignoring this contribution is “literally the equivalent of leaving the US, China and the EU out of global GDP calculations.”

This isn’t a mere accounting error; it’s the foundational subsidy of every economy in history. Thinkers like Silvia Federici, in her seminal work Caliban and the Witch, argue that the rise of capitalism was predicated on the subjugation of women and the expropriation of their unpaid reproductive labour. This work—producing and raising the next generation of workers—is the essential bedrock upon which all other economic activity is built. Without it, there are no factories, no armies, and no markets. By refusing to value it, our economic system treats it as a limitless natural resource to be exploited for free.

The Ebb and Flow of Opportunity: Labour, Shortages, and Solidarity

Women’s economic history is not a simple, linear story of progress. Instead, Dr Bateman reveals a cyclical pattern dictated by powerful demographic and economic forces. In periods of acute labour shortage, opportunities for women have consistently expanded.

After the Black Death wiped out up to half of Europe’s population in the 14th century, the desperate need for workers allowed women to enter guilds and trades in unprecedented numbers. Likewise, the labour shortages of the post-World War II era, caused by war casualties and low birth rates during the Great Depression, opened doors for women in the workforce. In these moments, employers actively seek out untapped labour pools, and male resistance tends to soften as rising wages reduce the perceived threat of competition.

Conversely, in times of labour surplus, when populations are booming and jobs are scarce, women are often the first to be pushed out. Male-dominated institutions, from medieval guilds to 20th-century trade unions, have historically worked to exclude women, instantly halving the competition for jobs and protecting male wages. Historian Judith M. Bennett has documented how, despite the “golden age” for women after the Black Death, patriarchal structures soon reasserted themselves, using guilds and legal means to once again restrict women’s economic independence. This complex dynamic reveals the fragile and often contradictory relationship between class solidarity and gender exclusion.

From Victims to Revolutionaries

Crucially, women have never been passive victims of these forces. The podcast touches on the long and potent history of female-led industrial action. The Bryant & May Matchgirls’ Strike of 1888 is a classic example, but the pattern is global. The Russian Revolution of February 1917 was ignited on International Women’s Day by female textile workers in Petrograd, who downed their tools to protest the crushing burdens of war, food shortages, and appalling working conditions. Their courage brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets, toppling a centuries-old monarchy.

Figures like Alexandra Kollontai, a leading Bolshevik who became the world’s first female government minister, fought tirelessly within the revolutionary movement for the socialisation of domestic labour and the true emancipation of women, before being sidelined by an increasingly authoritarian state. This history of agency is vital; it reminds us that women have not been “given” rights but have fought, organized, and bled for them.

Why This History Matters Now

Reclaiming this hidden history is more than an academic exercise. As Dr Bateman and host Nick discuss, we live in a time of resurgent misogyny and a concerted pushback against women’s rights globally. The narratives we tell about our past shape the possibilities we can imagine for our future.

When we accept a history that credits men alone for creating wealth, we perpetuate a system that devalues women’s work, justifies pay gaps, and ignores the crushing economic burden of unpaid care. By understanding that all economies are built on the foundation of women’s labour, both paid and unpaid, we equip ourselves to challenge these injustices and build a more equitable world. Economica is not just a history book; it is a manifesto for a more honest and just future.

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Further Reading

For listeners interested in exploring these themes further, here are some key texts and historians:

• Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power by Victoria Bateman: The essential starting point, offering a sweeping and accessible global narrative.
• A Woman’s Wage: Historical Meanings and Social Consequences by Alice Kessler-Harris: A foundational text on how the concept of a “living wage” was historically gendered and used to justify paying women less.
• Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation by Silvia Federici: A powerful and provocative Marxist-feminist analysis of the transition to capitalism, arguing it required a war against women.
• A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America by Lizabeth Cohen: Mentioned in the podcast, this book brilliantly details how the modern American “housewife” was constructed as a patriotic consumer after WWII.
• Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 by Judith M. Bennett: A detailed microhistory showing how women were gradually pushed out of the brewing industry, a trade they once dominated.
• Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity by Claudia Goldin: Written by the 2023 Nobel laureate in Economics, this book uses a century of data to explore the complex relationship between women’s work, education, and family life.