Over the years, the role of women and girls has changed from focusing on producing to focusing on consuming. Many of our foremothers produced for survival, either financial, emotional, or commemorative.  In addition to quilting, women's families depended on their gardening, canning, sewing, spinning, knitting, butter making, the list goes on. With hard cash in short supply and men often controlling it, women contributed to their families welfare with their physical labor. Mrs. Wilman's mother ploughed fields as well as quilted. Indeed, the authors of The Quilter's: Women and Domestic Art, an Oral History, Cooper and Alan, equate quilting, and I would say other productive labors, with laying the groundwork for civilization:

                  We looked around us and realized she [Mrs. Wilman's mother] had laid the groundwork for
                  the house with her quilts. . . . The quilts were her base and from them she planned and 
                  completes her next project, the house. At each step she sank her roots deeper into the earth.
                  At each level she changed, built her surroundings. She structured her surroundings. Oh yes
                  then the community came next. Roots reaching out from one house to the next . . . 
                  a whole network, a grid of support. (23-4).


This remarkable work was done in the home, and the goal was to have enough to get by. 


Society underwent a remarkable change beginning with the industrial revolution and continuing through today with the technological age. Women began to come out of their homes and exchange their    time and energy for for a wage. Advancements in technology made home life cheaper and less labor intensive. Think electric lighting, running water, tractors, culminating in today's computers and cell phones. Also, goods were able to be produced abundantly lowering the price.  Somewhere along the way, the ability to consume or possess, which had been a trait of the upper classes and nobility,  became a mark of identity for middle and lower classes as well. Instead of producing works or goods like quilts and creating the messages that went into them, society and women turned to prefabricated items which carried prefabricated messages. For example, instead of the goose grease or other home remedy you have been using to softened your skin, try Wagner's Wonder Cream used by Mary Pickford. In a sense then, consumption and consumerism diminish a women's individuality and creative production. Furthermore, capitalism tends to devalue women. 

As Eileen R. Meehan in "Gendering the Commodity Audience" states, "political economists and feminist scholars understand that patriarchy and capitalism have been historically intertwined in the United States since the nation's founding" (183). While Meehan's research primarily explores advertiser supported media,  the term "audience commodity" is applicable for many products and texts aimed at women and girls. Whether it be romance novels or a My Little Pony inspired breakfast cereal, corporations are targeting female consumption. According to a quote in Global Issues "Children as Consumers," "marketing is not just about peddling products that people need; it's also about creating a society of consumers ever eager for more" (Holbert).  The objects girl and women buy become commonplaces and aid constructing their identity; thus constructing community's based on their consumption and less on their production.

(Okay, there are flaws in this. Think of it as experimentation and invention.)