How many SAHMs manage the household and the money?

So here's the thing. There's a certain theory of historical gender roles, going back to Ancient Greece at least as far as I know, that men's work was all external - politics, war, work, etc. The flip side was that women's work was all internal, meaning that women basically ran the support structures that made the external work possible. Women controlled the home - they determined what the family ate, they ran the family's social connections, they managed the nuts and bolts of the household, they oversaw servants, and, most importantly, they made connections with other women and managed things like marriages between their children.

The point of it all is that women in what we would consider to be traditional roles actually had a lot of power, if only because men couldn't do everything. The whole concept of "man as head of the family, to which all others submit" is bizarre in this context; it's more likely that a man would make the decisions outside the home, and then be expected to immediately submit to his wife's judgment inside the home. And this would include monetary considerations - he earns, and she budgets and spends.

This is not to say that the balance of power was equal; we know it was not. But hearing some women here talk about doing things for their husbands as if they're a god to be worshipped got me thinking about this. Like... that's not really how it used to work, and getting into that subservient mindset isn't good for you. Your role is a support role, but it's still a partnership. You have authority in your own domain.

Anyway, I just thought this would be something cool to talk about, and maybe get us thinking about what kind of power and authority we all have in our respective homes.