The Feminine Arts

So I'm reading along through Gabriel Garcia Lorca's Bodas De Sangre, and I get to the part where a father is extolling his daughter's virtues to her future mother-in-law to be. Apparently, the virtues of fine Spanish womanhood included 1) getting up at 3AM to start breakfast, 2) never speaking, 3) skill with wool and embroidery, and 4) the ability to cut through a thick rope with one's teeth.