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[jays]

Could you explain the contextual meaning of "Just as if a man-any man-could keep a kitchen properly" in the following excerpt?
--- the following ----
That was two years after her father's death and a short time after her sweetherart - the one we believed would marry her - had deserted her. After her father's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all. A few ladies had the temerity to call, but were not received, and the only sign of life about the place was the Negro man - a young man then - going in and out with a market basket.
" Just as if a man - any man - could keep a kitchen properly," the ladies said so they were not surprised when the smell developed. It was another link between the gross, teeming world and the high and mighty Griersons.
[ Her name here is Emily Grierson ; from A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner ]

[Jintii]

The ladies don't think that a man can be a good housekeeper. They think only a woman can keep a kitchen clean, and Emily now doesn't have any women servants. So when a smell starts to come from the house, they think it's because a man is in charge of the kitchen, and he doesn't clean it.