Hadijatou, a Tuareg woman in her mid-20s, rises early to sift millet and prepare breakfast. Her parents had been nomads, but she is grateful she is not.

“Before, everything was given to us by the men. When you are given what you need by other people, you are dependent on them,” says Hadijatou. “But when you are producing what you need you depend on nobody. The life now is far better.”

I am reminded of the well-received theory that it was women who invented agriculture and even culture itself (the word “culture” is related to “cultivation”). As neolithic women chose to spent more time in settled areas to raise children they learned how to grow their own crops, grind grain and preserve food through fermentation and other means. As their children stayed close to home and learned from their first teachers — their mothers — how to do all the tasks of the home, schools arose along with the means to record the knowledge.

Throughout the Bible and other Near Eastern literature, the war between the civilized (agricultural) and the nomads waged for millennia. This war was intimately connected to the war between the sexes. Over time, patriarchy developed to appropriate all of women’s inventions, claiming them as their own, with many ancient myths told to explain this shift.

Despite the eventual negative shift, we must thank women for improving the lot of humanity. If men, like this Tuareg tribesman below, had not allowed our neolithic grandmothers to have their way, we might all live “closer to the land,” but it would also be a more brutal and less interesting world:

  Traditionally, the men don’t care what the women think. Children don’t count for much, either. Mohamed Ag Mustafa, the herder still living the traditional Tuareg lifestyle, says he sees no reason to send his children to school: “Maybe school is useful for people in the cities, but not for us. As far as we are concerned, children are only useful for getting water or keeping an eye on the cattle.”

My husband has been listening to me complain about the difficulty of the passover dishes and heard me scream when I burn myself on the granola. I had to send him out for wine for the mushroom dish and now he’s down in the basement riding the exercise bike. He has no apparent interest in helping me cook, though I haven’t asked and don’t really need his help. He would probably suggest we order out and take a nice walk.

The reality is that often to eat good food, which I love to do, means cooking it yourself.  The mushrooms (portobella, shitake and porcini) simmering in wine and thyme smell divine. As a vegetarian family at Passover, we wouldn’t find anything like we’re eating this weekend at a restaurant. The convenience of not cooking has it advantages, but so does cooking from scratch. Knowing that millions (if not billions) of women around the world are doing the same thing right now makes me smile. I do only hope they’re able to savor the smells as much as I am.

For Hannukah I’ve made latkes, tabouleh, my mom’s special coffee cake, two types of cookies, (along with some other in- between meals) and already I’m exhausted. I haven’t written in my blog for months as we’ve painted the family room, ripped out and replaced carpet, and put the garden to bed for the winter. And our 20 month old daughter is enthusiastically into everything and couldn’t be more fun — but I could use more sleep.

We recently decided to pay for house cleaning. As I stare at the pile of dirty dishesn from the cookies I made today, I think I could use a “scullery maid” of sorts as well, (no derision intended). And while I’m at it, maybe a vegan personal chef!

On a side note, I think the entire construction industry is one major racket. It’s almost impossible to get any prices for doors, windows, siding or any other component of construction without going through the time consuming “Free Estimate,” which is really just a way for contractors to “get in the door.” You really need a thick skin to deal with these folks.

I’ve been told the cost of construction in the Boston area is approximately $175 a square foot. For that much money, they should be able to write off a few unsucessful “free estimates.” I’ll continue to work only with those contractors who don’t think I’m wasting their time.

a man who had signed seven agreements granting his wife control over their frozen embryos in the event of a divorce could nonetheless change his mind and prevent her from implanting them.To decide otherwise, the court found, would be “forced procreation.”

In light of the Right to Life movement’s vicious campaign to outlaw abortion, I find the concept of “forced procreation” in the case of a man who does not want his sperm used to be laughable. What is being forced? You don’t want little “mini mes” running around without your permission? How many women have had to take care of unwanted children because they are unable to obtain a safe and legal abortion? The number of these women continues to grow as fewer and fewer doctors are being trained to perform abortions and fewer and fewer states are allowing abortions. Women effectively experience “forced procreation” whenever we cannot terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

Bennett’s article centers on a recent case taken on by The National Center for Men. The case concerns a 25 year old male who claims he did not want children and therefore should not have to pay child support for his 7 month old child. The case has been labeled (and trademarked) “Roe v. Wade for Men.”

I wonder if the National Center for Men gets the concept that Roe v. Wade is about a woman’s body, not merely what comes out of a woman’s body. Sperm and Egg are simply not equivalent. As long as women continue to provide the only safe place for a fertilized egg to grow into a human being, women’s role in procreation will continue to be vastly more complicated and more dangerous than a man’s. Women risk their own life every time they choose to have a child. Men simply do not take this risk.