On females

[Ironside]

All of which is of course obvious. The problem is that solutions to short-term problems (eg the need for women to work in factories during WWI) have been applied to wider society on a much longer term basis when it simply wasn't ready for it. Particular economic 'blips' aside, we had an economy based on one-income households. If two people from certain households get jobs, then that is going to result in households where nobody works.

And here it is where the complexity sets in. A double household will also have increased wealth so it will in turn have a higher consumption, which in turn produces more jobs. If the long term unemployed simply vanished, it wouldn't take that long before it would regrow from the working population.

As Philipvs said, it's a class issue, and that's why I always think it strange that self-identifying socialists should rejoice in the situation.

Repeat after me. To be independent, I'll need my own income. Otherwise I'll need to pray that my provider is both reasonable and not unlucky.

That should cover why socialists prefer it.

And you're barking up the wrong tree when it comes to the reason why UK has so low social mobillity. The UK aren't in any way special when it comes to women in the workforce, many countries with much higher social mobillity have more.