Did women in traditional British households work?

Before World War II, the traditional English woman did not work outside the home, she fulfilled the duties of how to be a good mother, a wife. Especially in upper class British society. Modern British women may have reversed this archaic and discriminated against tradition.

The main goal of British women's efforts in the 1980s and 1990s was to combine female independence with femininity. On the one hand, they would continue their quest for independence, and they hoped to find their own side of the world outside the home; but on the other hand, they also corrected the view of some radical feminists in the 1970s who denied that women should continue to be mothers, and argued for not giving up their natural rights as mothers. It was important to them that they were not controlled by men in the performance of their maternal duties. So the image of the 'dual role' acquired by British women in the 1980s and 1990s after the end of the Second World War continued, but it was important for them to make further efforts to change the overemphasis on the domestic role in this image, and to increase the significance of work for them, so as to minimize the constraints that the family placed on them. This is a career-oriented image of motherhood. This effort has been recognized to a certain extent by the mainstream society and this is reflected in the image of British women in the present era. In women's magazines, for example, the topics talked about are not only the traditional duties of women in the family, but also a number of topics that deal with women's relationship with work and political affairs outside the home. They are addressed not only to middle- and working-class white women, but also across ethnic and racial boundaries, and may be a black woman or an Asian woman; she may be a wife and mother who loves her family, but she may also be a successful career woman.

A recent study by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) shows that a job, a family, and a husband who can do the laundry are the basic ingredients of happiness for British women today.

Researchers said the survey shows that British women are more satisfied with the "non-traditional" division of family roles, and are not willing to stay at home to raise children. So the researchers have come up with a "prescription for happiness" for British women, which is a relaxed attitude to working outside the home coupled with a fairer division of labor in the home.

Professor Rosemary Crompton of City University London, who led the study, said the "happiness prescription" can be generalized, but also adjusted according to the specific circumstances of each place. At the same time, women's happiness also needs the whole society as well as men's strong cooperation.