Carers Chill4us | Carers message board

When the Second World War broke out in 1939 just over five million women were in work. By 1943 that number stood well in excess of seven million. As men from all over the country joined the fight against fascism, so women were called upon to help – and in an age of total war they were now in the midst of the action.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z2j9d2p

and after the war they were expected to go back to being at home 24 hours a day.
Women had done valuable work, and did not want to be kept at home.

My mum worked at Deans on munitions during the war, but she worked before that , as did many women in the North, she was a weaver.