Although it has been proven that most Roman women were housewives, there were also some women who not only required to be matrons. A handful of women were also involved in professional activities such as business, sales and skilled trades in which they were midwives, nurses or even doctors. These handfuls of women generally came from upper-class families and were allowed to excel at something in life. (Shelton 1998, 303) As my thesis holds, women were not given importance in society due to their role. Roman society viewed men as breadwinners, but women were never given credit for what they did. In fact, they couldn't become anything other than a housewife, which ultimately makes them unimportant. Most women housewives would only be given credit if they did housework properly, but that importance was not equal to that of a man.