If all the Labourers in aVillage breed up several Sons to the same work there will be too many Labourers to cultivate the Lands belonging to theVillage, and the surplus Adults must go to seek a livelihood elsewhere, which they generally do in Cities.

-Cantillon, Richard
^4  Essay on the Nature of  Trade.

If your daughters are inclined to love reading, do not check their inclination by hindering them of the diverting part of it. It is as necessary for the amusement of women as the reputation of men; but teach them not to expect anyapplause from it† Ignorance is as much the fountain of vice as idleness, and indeed generally produces it. People that do not read or work for a livelihood have many hours they know not how to employ, especially women, who commonly fall into vapours or something worse.

-Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley ne¤  e Pierrepoint
  Letter,  Jan. Collected in R Halsband (ed) Selected Letters of Lady Mary  Wortley Montagu (1970).

These Mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to beg Sustenance for their helpless Infants; who, as they grow up either turnThieves for want of Work; or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender in Spain; or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.

-Swift,Jonathan
  A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Ireland from being a Burden to their Parents or Country.