The social role of women varied from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and River Valley Civilizations of Egypt.
In the Paleolithic age, women were held in high regard as an integral part of family relationship. They were gatherers and worked outside to collect the fruits and berries their family needed for survival.
They brought these foods to women in their roles of gathering, preserving, and storing food stuffs would undoubtedly have invented weaving and pottery making. Since it is thought that most prehistoric women did not live beyond their twenties, there would not have been older women to take care of the small children when women were gathering food items the family similar to the men bringing home the meat that they attained while hunting. Men and women in the Paleolithic era were nomadic hunters and gatherers. Since they had to follow their food source, the women gathered berries and plants while the men were out hunting.
Obsidian projectile point.
Hemet Public Library
English: Myotragus balearicus Balearian mouse-goat...Women were also responsible for caring for the children. Since there was no code of law or government in the Paleolithic era, the only sense of social organization was that groups were patriarchal.
Women in ancient Mesopotamia were clearly second to their male counterparts, regardless of which layer of the social class they were part of.
During the Neolithic age, women were pushed inside the home and became subservient to men. They worked indoors with the house cleaning and cooking while taking care of the family. As a caretaker of the family unit, they were viewed much like the housewife would be today. Women were enjoying equality
with men, which was undoubtedly due to women's economic contributions.
People were mainly hunter-gatherers, and women generally do the gathering in such societies. They would have spent much of their time searching for edibles like nuts,