Historians note that women during the Tang dynasty were brazen, assertive, active, and relatively more socially liberated than Song women. Women of the Song period are typically seen as well educated and interested in expressing themselves through poetry, yet more reserved, respectful, "slender, petite and dainty," according to Gernet. Evidence of foot binding as a new trend in the Southern Song period certainly reinforces this notion. This trend had roots in Neo-Confucian beliefs according to Blake. "However, the greater number of documents due to more widespread printing reveal a much more complex and rich reality about family life and Song women. Through written stories, legal cases, and other documents, many different sources show that Song women held considerable clout in family decision-making, and some were quite economically savvy. Men dominated the public sphere, while affluent wives spent most of their time indoors enjoying leisure activities and managing the household. However, women of the lower and middle classes were not solely bound to the domestic sphere. It was common for women to manage town inns, some to manage restaurants, farmers' daughters to weave mats and sell them on their own behalf, midwives to deliver babies, Buddhist nuns to study religious texts and sutras, female nurses to assist physicians, and women to keep a close eye on their own financial affairs. In the case of the latter, legal case documents describe childless widows who accused their nephews of stealing their property. There are also numerous mentions of women drawing upon their dowries to help their husband's sisters marry into other prominent families. One notable figure was Empress Liu 劉 (969-1033), the first empress in the Song dynasty, who wore the emperor's robes while conducting an imperial sacrifice in the last year of her life.