you would probably like the book Invisible Women. Touches a lot on this subject and how there is so much "missing data" when we talk about these things and it carries through to the modern day
To the best of my knowledge a vanishingly small proportion of historical society was literate and it was an even smaller subset that authored anything of note. It isn't historical women that are invisible it's >90% of everyone. The written accounts are whatever the elite of the elite deigned to write down which those that came after chose to bother preserving.
True, but farming was still somewhat visible to many of the elite. The bible (old testament) has a number of farmers who were also elite.
The whole point of the elite is that they don't have to do the hard work.... It's like Jefferson being out in the fields picking cotton whilst paying for a bunch of slaves.. a highly dubious proposition
That is ONE elite. There have been many elites over history with different levels of wealth and different things they did. Those who could afford a lot of slaves were not out in the field, but not all elite were that wealthy. I'm sure Jefferson wasn't picking cotton, but that doesn't mean no elite were out in the fields.
Yeah you should check out this book, would enhance the best of your knowledge. While you're right, even within that cohort there is a massive gender difference and it impacts how we view society in a big way