Does anyone remember Radio 1 phone-ins back in the Seventies, when women would self-deprecatingly describe themselves as “just a housewife”?

It was a good decade before the jocular male DJs were trained to respond: “There’s no 'just’ about it, Maureen, you’re doing a very valuable job there in Basingstoke, ha, ha.”

Four decades on, when nine out of ten mothers work, the only women likely to be listening to the radio all day are probably calling in from Millionaire’s Row.

Recent research from insurance group LV showed that stay-at-home mothers are happier than those who go out to work.

Despite working double the hours of many in-paid employment, they scored 87.2 per cent on the happiness index, the next highest group being those in hospitality and events management, with 86.3 per cent.