Nationally, the proportion of women doing paid work has risen fairly steadily from 34% in 1931 to 64% in 2011; meanwhile, the same rate for men had dropped from 91% to 75%, so the difference between the sexes has been greatly reduced. One result is that the number of households with a single, usually male 'breadwinner' has declined, and households with two people working and with no-one working have both increased.

In 1931, the highest proportion of women were working in textile towns like Blackburn and Burnley, both with 60% activity rates, and in inner London districts like Westminster (55%), and Kensington and Chelsea (53%) -- in these areas both office work and domestic servants were factors. Rural areas had typical rates around 20%, although this may exclude farmers' wives working on family farms. However, the very lowest rates were in mining communities, where miners expected their relatively high wages to support the entire family: in Blaenau Gwent and Easington, only 12% of women worked.

Over time, female activity rates have risen in almost all areas, but the most striking transformation is of rural central England: almost universally, women now work except for specific periods when they take time off to have children.