This is also a reference to unpaid domestic labor. Dishwashing, laundry, cooking, cleaning, event planning, etc. etc. And we have to remember that just a few generations back this work was very difficult, no dish washing machine, no clothes washing machine, clothes were mended and washed by hand, a garden wasn't for flowers it was for food, food that then had to be canned, on and on. women and mothers have always been working women and mothers.