ANNE F BROADBRIDGE
Q. IN YOUR BOOK YOU LOOK AT THE IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL ROLES WOMEN PLAYED IN GENGHIS KHAN’S FAMILY AND IN THE MONGOL EMPIRE. WHAT WERE THESE ROLES?
A. It’s critical to understand that in nomadic society, work was organised along gender lines. Since the Mongols were herders with flocks, for example, women tended cattle, men cared for horses and (Bactrian) camels, and women and men together managed sheep and goats. In the moveable camps in which the Mongols lived, men built the round, wood-and-felt homes (gers or yurts), and the ox-wagons for storage and transport, while women
