WolfishMusings, I agree with Feif Un that any task one does for his/ her family–feeding, diapering, and bathing children; cleaning laundry; grocery shopping, cooking, & baking; driving carpools; general house maintenance; and earning income–are holy tasks if done with the intention of performing the chessed of supporting & raising a Torah family. It doesn’t matter if a man or woman is performing the task.
I think the reason the holiness of these tasks is emphasized more wrt women than men is because women don’t have the same mitzvah of limud torah as men do. Also, often women perform many of the repetitive, seemingly mundane tasks of family & household maintenance, so reinforcement of this concept is important.
I also agree with the point oomis1105 raised that women often help their children with their homework in Jewish & secular subjects. Certainly if I hadn’t received the wonderful education I had, my 9-year-old son’s mishnayos homework would’ve been incomplete on the four nights out of five that my husband worked late (no, I did not learn mishnayos in school, but learning chumash & navi with commentaries taught me what I needed to know to read the mishnayos text & commentaries). But that’s not the primary reason for girls to receive an education.