Ah, I haven't heard of those; will need to check them out.
As for "World Made by Hand" - well, the main characters are all male, yes. Women really only exist as appendixes to them, for food and sex etc. And it's just stated that the local council people have formed to run their town is all-male, now that they have been thrown back to a former lifestyle (or something of that sort), as if it was a normal, logical consequence of an energy shortage. It's not as if the men in that council need to do heavy labour or hand-to-hand-combat or anything of that sort, but somehow women automatically seem not to have the leadership skills and authority needed to run a town, and only influence things indirectly through the men.
It's probably similar to what the OP describes regarding the survivalists actually wanting things to end; there is a subconscious longing for "simpler times" as they were in the past, and apparently part of that is that male control of society is accepted as a natural law.
no subject
As for "World Made by Hand" - well, the main characters are all male, yes. Women really only exist as appendixes to them, for food and sex etc. And it's just stated that the local council people have formed to run their town is all-male, now that they have been thrown back to a former lifestyle (or something of that sort), as if it was a normal, logical consequence of an energy shortage. It's not as if the men in that council need to do heavy labour or hand-to-hand-combat or anything of that sort, but somehow women automatically seem not to have the leadership skills and authority needed to run a town, and only influence things indirectly through the men.
It's probably similar to what the OP describes regarding the survivalists actually wanting things to end; there is a subconscious longing for "simpler times" as they were in the past, and apparently part of that is that male control of society is accepted as a natural law.