The book does have some elements that might be called “magical,” though not nearly as much as some other things I’ve seen mentioned here.
Kunstler really only describes how things are in one small area. The whole rest of the world is unknown, aside from scraps of rumor.
The electricity is part of that picture. Of course there are various things that might be happening to cause it–but nobody knows. The systems of the outside world can no longer be relied upon, that’s the point.
So within the realm of Kunstler’s town, Union Grove, is it so unrealistic that things fell out thus, with women mainly staying close to home? I’d have to count it shocking if large numbers didn’t adopt such a pattern in the circumstances. I noticed some talk in this thread from women who suggested that being a woman men chose to protect might be relevant to their well-being.
Nobody is saying that’s a good thing, it just might be the practical reality for some. In any event, I didn’t understand Kunstler to mean that society was operating on the same terms everywhere. Indeed, some episodes in the book suggest that it is emphatically different (often worse) in other places. But mostly it’s just unknown. Probably the self-sufficient lesbians are out there somewhere, along with any other scenario you care to imagine. But for the most part, the description of the behavior of the people of Union Grove (which we understand to have been a fairly homogenous place before) strikes me as a reasonable guess at how some people will get by.
The book is probably best understood in conjunction with Kunstler’s non-fiction treatment of similar themes, such as The Long Emergency. Some of the circumstances he describes in World Made by Hand represent guesses, not the aspirations many readers seem to see.