Dave Plowman wrote:
And I've always wondered how valid this "men never went
in the kitchen" thing was.

My father - born around 1900 - washed and dried the lunchtime dishes every
single day. He also gave his unopened pay packet to mother every Friday.

My great-uncle on my father's side was a batchelor for 95 years,
made very nice sponge cakes. My grandather (his brother-in-law)
was the complete opposite, expected my nanan to do everything.
When she had a stroke he got me & my dad to replace the gas
cooker with an electric one "because she can't manage the gas
any more". Never thought of doing the cooking himself. After
my nanan died I think he lived on toast and baked beans until
he enrolled on a home cooking course at college

On my mother's side my great-grandmother was widowed with a
two-week-old daughter in 1918, and worked full time for the
next 40 years, her brothers all knew how to cook, etc. My
grandmother and grandfather were both headteachers, and had
seven children and the oldest, boys as well as girls, had to
cook and keep house and look after the younger children, or
they'd go hungry and feel the back of her hand

JGH