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The literature has identified particular restrictions on the ability of women to obtain paid work in rural areas, with lack of job opportunities, lack of child care facilities, access problems and cultural expectations about a woman's role in rural society all bearing negatively on the ability to attain jobs for which women are qualified. This paper acknowledges these constraints but cautions against placing too much emphasis on them. Drawing on census data at the NUTS5 level, this paper examines the 1,184 NUTS5 zones (wards) in the East of England Region, comparing labour market contexts for cities, mid-sized towns and rural areas, with rural zones distinguished by the nature of their linkages with cities and local arenas of employment. The paper shows that rural areas in general have rather similar labour market engagements for women as urban zones. Within rural areas there are differences that need noting, with places with weak integration into city-centred economies standing apart from the rest in terms of lower rates of female labour market activity. Even here, however, relationships are not uniformly negative, with a general picture of rather slim differences between the area-types under investigation. The main message of the paper is not to over-emphasize the 'peculiarities' of 'rural' phenomena, which can bear heavy, if not dominant traces, of society-wide processes, as well as revealing as important a level of distinction within rural zones as between them and urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]