Just how far did women's experience of World War II help to liberate them? Was it the opportunity they had expected, or was it simply six years of deprivation and hard work? This volume considers these and other questions through the writings of women living through the war years. It has been compiled from the archive at the University of Sussex, which houses the papers of Mass-Observation, an organization which was set up in 1937 with the aim of recording everyday life in Britain. Although this anthology inevitably represents only a fraction of the archive, it offers contemporary insight into the experiences and perceptions of women during the war period, and includes extracts from personal diaries, letters and detailed questionnaires.