Someone I used to work with (female), with a bachelor's degree and in management did not know how to sew on a button. That made my jaw drop.
My Home Ec in the 70's consisted of both sewing and cooking, but nothing else. I now own a sewing machine and do hemming, patching and have made curtains. I mostly cook at home, but frankly, credit my mother and not classes for this skill. I currently have a roommate whose definition of cooking is throwing frozen packaged food into a pan and heating it up. For every meal, except for breakfast, which is eggs and toast.
And speaking of roommate, back to the "can never retire" topic. Mid 50's female who has worked hard all her life in various jobs and a side-business that was heavily dependent on physical health and fitness. Twice divorced and raised 2 kids partly on her own. Reports that she made no less than $100,000 a year for the last 15 years. Owned a cheapie house for a few years, but had to sell when she got very ill and had to move in with a relative. That wasn't working out, so she moved to another town to be nearer other family and is renting a room from me. So now she is recovered enough to work part time, but has NO savings and her only assets are a 12 years old car and some furniture in storage. Struggling to live on about $1600.00 a month before taxes. I've never asked about pensions, but I doubt she has much or any as she did lots of different jobs over the years, so will probably have to rely on CPP (maximum of $900.00 a month at 65, but most people never reach that amount, so $500 -700 is more likely) and OAS (about $600.00 a month with possible bump up to $1200.00 if that's all you have). Not likely to get any significant inheritance either. So she will likely have to work until she can't and will have little even at that point, because of her wastefulness. It's no wonder she has next to nothing now, because it all goes out as fast as it comes in. She has to pay her rent in 2 installments when she gets paid, receives packages from Amazon about once a week, buys her dog pricey treats and expensive kibble, eats all organic, drives to a town 20 minutes away for meat, eats fast food at least twice a week at $12.00 each time, has 2 baths a day with a tub full of water, uses at least half a sink's worth of running water to wash one plate, leaves her lights on all the time, and MUST have the temperature at 22 degrees all year round or can't possibly survive (I live in Canada, where it's - 30 C in winter and + 30 C in summer). I have to pay all utilities now, but if that's how she's lived all her life, she's lost a lot of money and will continue to do so in future. She doesn't seem to make any connections between her habits and her lack of assets, either, because she will fret about her lack of money but then leave kibble in the dog food bag she throws out, not eat the crusts on the $8.00 (!) a loaf bread she buys, throw out the toothpaste with a few more days worth left in it, etc, etc. It amazes me how she can be so oblivious. But her dream is to have a large country property and lots of dogs. Yeah, that'll never happen. We're talking about a woman who had to get an advance on her first paycheck because she didn't have any suitable work clothes. Yikes. Sad, frustrating for me to watch, and downright unnecessary. So glad that's not my life!