My mams family were all miners so no women worked once married, I think a few worked in shops when single. My Dads family had shops so were self employed, so the women did work in the shops. I found out my Nana had a maid to look after the kids while she ran the shop and it was only a small corner shop in a mining community. I was well impressed! Ha Ha!
Both sets of my grandparents were shopkeepers living in the premises so the wives worked and the children had their parents at home. My mother worked from when I started school, but only part time. I did some part time evening work until my son was of school age and then had part time jobs which fitted around school. I was really happy and enjoyed the years I had being a Mum. We had such fun and I would have hated going to work and farming my young child out to a nursery. In the 80s I think most Mums were like me. And we were all managed on very little money. Times have changed and like APG I dont think it's for the better where the children are concerned
my gran worked on the railways as a cleaner, her husband died relatively young, so guess she didn't have a lot of choice.. my mother worked at tailoring, then got cleaning jobs so she could be with us kids during the day.