Unique and unrivaled insight into women's minds and experiences during World War Two. Set up in 1937, the Mass-Observation organization aimed to record everyday life in Britain during that difficult period. From its astonishingly rich archives comes an anthology that asks how far did the war go to liberate women and did it actually provide the opportunity that so many expected...or was it simply six years or deprivation, hard work, and pain? The extracts include research reports, letters, diaries, and detailed questionnaires, and come from an enormous range of contributors, from a fish-and-chip shop employee in Birmingham and an Irish immigrant munitions factory worker to young women welders and a 17-year-old schoolgirl. "Irresistible reading."--Sunday Times. "A list of treasures here presented could continue almost indefinitely...a wonderful book..."--Times Literary Supplement.