If you are looking at all cultures from all time, it's pretty hard to say "all" but it's generally true that women were kept busy primary bearing and caring for children and keeping the home. Her work, other than childcare and homemaking, tended to be things women could do while still caring for small children. A woman in the 1600s, or a prehistoric woman, or a woman from any period or place in history until quite recently, could not go off to work and have someone else take care of her small kids. She might weave cloth or baskets or bring in sewing or laundry or keep chickens and sell the eggs -- that kind of thing. It's not like we had daycare centers until recently.