So the origins of the Alfredian cakes myth are quite clouded, but it's likely to have attained its place in pop-historical national mythos during the Victorian period, particularly during the fascination with Alfred that surrounded the millenium since his accession in 1871, a period in which Anglo-Saxon History as a area of study really came into being and was immediately co-opted, corrupted and outright fabricated in order to serve the political, colonial, societal and moral causes and imperatives of the day. Parker' England's Darling: The Victorian Cult of Alfred the Great is a particularly thorough dissection of this trope. Whether or not a ninth century woman was supposed to be a domestic homemaker is almost irrelevant, for a nineteenth century woman certainly was.

What a ninth century woman was supposed to do depended a lot on one's station in life. As you might expect, few women from the period have much written about them, with a couple of notable exceptions. As a word of caution at this point, claims of a commonality of Viking warrior women should be taken with an extremely large pinch of salt, probably one big enough to give a cardiologist concern. Certainly beyond particular characters within the sagas, there's a dearth of contemporary literary evidence for Norse women taking up arms. Roman historians were prompt to remark upon the strangeness of women in war, with Dio claiming that, during Boudica's rebellion, it was the femininity of the Iceni leader itself that caused the Romans the most shame. With this cultural heritage, it would be most likely that had female fighters accompanied Norse attacks on Europe, those women would be remarked upon if only to further pronounce the other-ness of the invader. The presence of weapons in graves is also readily seized upon by pop-archaeology but overlooks the great symbolic value of grave good depositions in pan-Germanic pre-Christian cultures. Spears, for example, are symbolic of free status, whereas swords typically are signifiers of wealth and status, regardless of whether one ever wore one in anger.

Within the agricultural peasant class of ninth century England, there was likely to have been only a little variation in roles on a gender basis. Women might not have been expected to plow the fields, for example, but would likely have needed to participate in animal husbandry or winter repair tasks such as weaving. A typical female role - and one central to the economy - would have been weaving. The production of thread and cloth, most often wool but also flax - was not only important for personal clothing but was also extremely lucrative for English markets, and would have been predominantly carried out by women at home. In other trades, there were more limitations, but women can and did learn crafts, as the law allowed wives to assist their husbands and for widows to continue their husbands' trades after death.

Women of higher status enjoyed more roles. Noble wives could often have roles in the managing of estates, and could pursue education. The Church was also a major industry. While women couldn't be priests, they could still rise to positions of great power and influence. Like their monastic contemporaries, nuns were not only educated, but could pursue a variety of secular interests. The charters of Minster-in-Thanet reveal that the convent there was continually absolved of the need to pay berthing fees or import taxes on their ships in the port of London, suggesting that the nuns there were involved in the running and administration of a not-insignificant mercantile operation. King Alfred's own daughter, Æthelflæd, rose to prominence as ruler of a semi-autonomous Mercia that resisted the attempts of Edward the Elder to establish West Saxon overlordship, and was a highly active partner in the expansion of England into the Danelaw.