Click through on the image for this great interactive chart from 1850–2000, showing the various professions people with jobs reported to the US Census—blue layer s for men and red/pink for women. It seems quite obvious that being an actual full-time homemaker never made the chart (and the scarcity of female farmers suggests that wives' (and daughters') contributions to running the farm didn't register. I'm also fascinated by the drop in farmers (and increase in farm laborers) between 1860 and 1870. I'm guessing the Civil War had something to do with it, but I'm not quite sure what.