I'm not sure housekeeping was out of the way in early modern Europe or America. Rather it was so central and ordinary a part of life that it escaped the eye of history. So did housekeepers for that matter. Interesting.... the housekeepers did not escape the eyes of Vermeer or Franz Hals or some of the other important Dutch painters from this era, but then they were busy emphasizing the arts of bourgeois living in a way that retrospective historians, with their emphasis of the significant and outstanding, have not done until recently.

In all fairness, I do think some of the most interesting work on early child-rearing practices has been done by men: Philippe Aries, Phil Greven, John Demos are just a few that have come to mind. But then, do you have to be a woman to do woman's history or an African American to do African-American history or a sailor to do maritime history?