Sorry Rowan, I did use the word 'work' to mean 'paid employment'. Working (sorry using the word in another sense!) class women did indeed work (= carry out their duties) very hard then: no washing machine, no fridge, coal to haul, a flat iron, no vacuum cleaner, no electricity in many households either ... and probably no other things I can't remember. No wonder women - and men too for that matter - looked worn out in their 30's. Of course the wealthier did have some or most of these things: things which most of us in the West now take for granted.
My argument against the green lobby is that the taxes they propose will return us to those times: the rich will be able to afford to pay them but not the poor:
'Rich man in his motor car, poor man on his bike'
'Rich man flies on holiday, poor man stays at home'
All together now to the tune of 'Dinah'! Please complete somebody!
The young greens don't remember this and, while probably thinking they are heralding a utopia, their ideas are really quite against social justice. I think it was borne out by a couple of photographs in the Guardian recently: one of a girl protesting outside the Drax power station recently with a 'Say No To Coal' T-Shirt. Another from the 70's with a 'Coal Not Dole' T-shirt. Was the recent protester really saying 'throw working people out of work, destroy communities'? We didn't need the greens, we had Thatcher!
As I said earlier green issues are to a great extent a middle class indulgence.
Doc John