I have done quite a bit of reading that suggests men very likely cheated on their wives during the wars (German war brothels, venereal disease, divorce rates), but I'm not finding much data about the infidelity of women in that time (I'm still searching). I know correlation does not always imply causation, but it seems like this could definitely be a huge factor in the increased divorce rates of the WW2 era.
Speaking in terms of women cheating, from what I've understood, it was mainly a woman's responsibility to foster a happy marriage and ensure that the marriage stayed away from divorce. With this societal construct of a "happy marriage" would it have been just as common for women to cheat as it was for men or would more women have been deterred from this type of behavior? I would also assume that it would have been exponentially harder for women to cheat because ~70% of men were off fighting in the war, but my numbers could also be relatively far off there.
Any insights?
As a follow up question - We've all heard of the "Dear John" letters sent by women to their husbands on the front lines. Who were all the men left behind on the homefront and what did they do for a living if not directly participate in the war effort?