Kitchen problems were baked into housing plans

The village of Vunidogoloa in Fiji was relocated due to rising sea levels (Feature, 18 November). Men were in charge and kitchens were not installed in the new houses.

That reminds me of the time I stayed in a 1960s Soviet Union housing complex. The kitchen was tiny; larger and properly equipped kitchens were deemed unnecessary. Soviet women were to be liberated from kitchen drudgery by meals instead being available in the stolovayas, the ubiquitous communal dining halls.

That social plan failed and the tiny kitchens didn’t liberate anyone, least of all women. Reiner Jaakson Oakville, Ontario, Canada