A soldier's daughter herself, she preferred the daughters of army and navy officers to be her students. Working class women were not enrolled. Things have progressively got better. Joy Larkam is probably the best writer on vegetable growing alive today. A recent series of BBC's Gardening World on starting a vegetable plot was introduced by a woman.
Men grow the food women cook it.
I should say, however, that in all other respects the NVS is an excellent organisation and rarely for gardening societies willing to address political issues as well as providing useful and interesting advice on vegetable growing. Class is also still an issue. The average garden is now just one tenth of an acre and most gardeners have a limited budget, yet many gardening magazines and television programmes feature huge gardens and planting schemes that would cost hundreds of pounds to recreate. Real small gardens and allotments are rarely featured. Even though there are some 175,000 allotment holders in England, a considerably greater number than those owning stately homes, you are far more likely to read of a stately home's garden than someone's allotment.