Women's Role in Societies

Thinking about women's role in societies... Traditional theories claim that "nature" dictates a specific division of labor under which women should stay at home or at least that it is men who should do the "hard labor." But is this true? As documented by the famous Danish economist Ester Boserup, there is evidence from very primitive societies in Africa that women were responsible for agriculture while men were doing absolutely nothing and even resisted working when asked to! Europeans in the nineteenth century even called the black man the "lazy" African man!!! I can add that in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East, very backward communities such as "ghagar" and "nawar" that dominate the very "low-status" occupations such as thieves, beggars, magicians, and monkey-players demonstrate a very prominent role of women. In fact, women are far more dominant than men in these communities and this is not only socially acceptable but is the social norm. Don't we need to revise many of our "prejudiced" theories that we grow up taking for granted?!!! Among these theories is the idea that there is a positive relationship between women's role and development, and that the wealthier the society is the more prominent women's role is. It appears that the relationship is U-shaped rather than linear!