"The historical association between femininity and neurosis is well documented. Many recent studies have seen women's mental health issues in the aftermath of the Second World War as being a direct consequence of a lack of opportunity and the banality of a domestic lifestyle. Although the figure of the 'desperate housewife' is familiar to us, Haggett suggests that many women in the 1950s and 1960s led satisfying lives and that gender roles, while very different, were often seen as equal."--Pub. desc.