ABSTRACT
Consider the image of Cinderella. It might be argued she is an archetypal woman: the uncomplaining domestic slave who through passivity and personal beauty wins her prince, her palace and everlasting happiness. To what extent is this true of the British woman in the 1990s? Is she still obliged to enter owner occupation via the church or the registry office door? Data from the 1991 census reveal that in England and Wales there were a total of 19,877,272 households1 of which 69.4 per cent were headed by men and the remaining 30.54 per cent by women.2
