alt Hacker News> Even your common peasant farmer man would likely spend a significant amount of time out in the field at lunchtime where the women are not around and so would have to fend for themselves for their lunch.
Womem were in the fields. And kids too. Generally men were doing physically most demanding work, but not all of it is like that.
And people working in the fields would also take the food that does not necessitate cooking with them. And kids were tasked to bring food to people working in fields when necessary.
You cant "fend for yourself" in the fields and also do the fields work.
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Until the Industrial Revolution, there was nothing even close to what we nowadays call "childhood". As children became old enough to walk by themselves, they'd accompany their parents and help with weeding & cultivation.
A real historian has written on this. https://acoup.blog/2021/03/19/collections-clothing-how-did-t...
> And textile production was a major activity (indeed, the major activity) for probably around 40% of the population in most pre-modern societies – not merely almost all adult women, but girls too would start spinning and weaving (spinning in particular, again, we’ll get there) at very early ages. Consequently, spinning thread may have been the single most frequently performed work-task in the ancient world
Sure women did get to the fields at times. How much did vary by culture. However there is very good reason (pregnancy and nursing) that most cultures had men's and women's work as separate things. That separation often resulted in men and women being separated by long enough that men would really want to cook their own meals instead of eating a packed meal.
> You cant "fend for yourself" in the fields and also do the fields work.
That depends greatly on what you mean by fend for yourself. You wouldn't be a gatherer, but you could cook a quick meal over a fire, maybe throw some fresh herbs in the pot if you happened to see any.