In this social history of gender roles, the author examines continuity and change in the respective spheres of men and women, in family life and in public activity before and during the Industrial Revolution. He re-examines the view that women had greater economic and political oppurtunities in pre-industrial England. He argues that while important changes took place in this period in the kinds of activites undertaken by the two sexes, we must redefine our understanding of the concept of separate spheres if it is to provide a meaningful characterization of the changing pattern of gender differences in the period.