Wow, never heard this before

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There was also an economic issue. When ale was brewed in the kettle in the house, and traded in the village for stuff, women’s work. When technology and economics reached the point that ale could be brewed and exchanged for actual money - well, get those women out of the way. Brewing is a man’s job. Recall that secretary was wholly a man’s job until technology allowed it to be sped up and acquired on the cheap - so it became women’s work. T’was ever thus.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25148889?seq=1

Yeah it’s debatable that they were accused of being witches. Plenty of articles saying that wasn’t the case.

Here in England, female brewsters made beer for centuries because the kitchen was their domain That bit is true. In fact, right up to 1800s a lot of pubs had their beer brewed by women in back rooms.

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I wrote a paper in school about how minimum drinking ages mostly came from labour issues around workers getting rations of ale, and not protecting children. History is weird.

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Would be a shame ifmost of it was made up…