This article is a vey middle class (Janet and John) view of the life of a woman in the 1950's. Upstairs, downstairs, woman at home, etc. etc.
I was born in 1941. In 1945 my parents needed to move back to East London as my Dad work (in the fur trade) was based there.
We (parents, me, and an mjuch older rother) lived in four attic rooms in a very largfe house. All 'upstairs' four flights of them. Three of these rooms had to be used as bedrooms. All rooms had a vey sloping cieling - my growthhieght was measured up a ceiling!!! Apart from the water that ran down the walls, the only tap was a cold water one over a tiny corner sink on the landing. Cooker in that other room. Mum worked part-time, which meant that by the age of 7 yrs I was getting myself to and from school by myself and often left 'home alone' during holidays (latch key kids we were called).
In 1950 we were moved to an out of city new housing estate, and had a semi-detached house. As this meant that Mum was now leaving even earlier to get to work and arriving home even later, I was in the care of a next door neighbour after school. Yes, she was a 'stay at home Mum' as she had two very young children. However, in order to get some extra money she was an outworker (as were most of the SAH Mums on the estate. Her house was crammed full with these outworking items, and she spent most of her time trhing to keep up the demands of fulfilling the numbers on these. Very different from the image of Mum in this article!!!
We moved back to East London, to a flat, in 1954 to be closer to work for my Dad. Soon afterwards my parents purchased their first ever fridge. Still no washing machine, Mum used the 'bag wash' each week for our washing, and Best wash once a month. Shopping list was left weekly with local shop ion her way to work and delivered by lad on a bike that night, when she returned home.