Before considering the role of women in ancient heathen society, let us first consider the role of men. We consider the following areas to be dominated by men but not necessily exclusivly.
Military, raiding
Rule, politics, preisthood
Hunting, fishing
Farming, especially harvest time when even proffessional warriors worked on the land.
Bards
Most commercial trades, smithing, pottery, woodwork, jewellery, leatherwork etc (though admittedly we know little about who performed the more mundane trades.
Drinking and feasting seem to have been predominated by men.
Merchants
Breeding!
Other important considerations are the roles of children and slaves who would have done much of the unskilled low status work. Herding animals, scaring birds from the fields etc.
(In a large household the lady would have overseen the work of numerous servents, slaves and girls, )
Cooking
As the cook of the household the woman would have maintained the hearth fire. She would have ground flour on a hand quern and baked bread on a very regular basis. She would have fetched the water. She would have cooked meals (typically bread and pottage) and served them at table. She would have acted as cup bearer at the feast and welcomed guests.
Farming
If her husband had a trade she would have overseen the farmwork in his absence; and assisted with weeding and harvesting if her husband worked on the land.
Diary Work
She would have processed milk into butter and cheese.
Brewing
She would have brewed ale and mead.
Laundry
She would have washed the clothes. (Very heavy work, probably left for low status women - where possible!)
Childbirth
She would have birthed numerous children (many died very young). She would have acted as midwife, possibly also for animals.
Teaching
She would have educated young children of both sexes in conduct and religious law. She would have trained her daughters in her own skills.
Magic
She may have acted as a seeress, a healer or a magic worker.
Thrift
She would have preserved meat and fish by salting and smoking. She would have controled the stores of the household and rationed the food carefully to last through the year (grain harvested late summer, animals slaughtered early winter). She would have kept the keys to the household and the storage chests.
Textile Crafts
She would have combed wool or flax, spun, woven and finished cloth. She would have made clothes, wall hangings, table and bedlinen.
Despite being locked into the pityful role of the housewife (a modern phobia) the Dark Age woman had considerable power. She represented the wealth of the household and her jewellery would declare the households worth. In a farming community the women were the bread winners, self sufficient farming rarely produces a surplus but home spun cloth was exchanged in place of currency. Woman seem to have done everything to improve the quality of the lives of their family, labouring to produce the best meals they could and making the household welcoming and comfortable.
We considered this question to be irrelevant today, the practice of traditional skills being more dependent on ability and interest. Heathen men enjoy many traditional feminine roles, cooking, brewing, magic, and even the textile crafts. We have abandoned many of the prejudices of the dark ages and we would encourage anyone to learn these ancient crafts of either sex.
So what are feminine mysteries if the sexes are equal in modern heathenism? Weaving was once a feminine mystery but to call it that today only gives a false impression that the craft is unsuitable for men. We would suggest the following are the only remaining feminine mysteries:
Childbirth
The magical use of menstual blood.
Magic linked to female masturbation.