Can anyone explain to me why the addition of women to the paid workforce did not result in decreased working hours for all?

I think even quite well off middle class unmarried women worked in victorian times - governess comes to mind.

Oh bugger, lots of cross posts. Typing too slow!

Someone more knowledgeable than me will come along soon and may well correct me but I think...

It's because the idea that women don't work is a relatively modern one. Poor women have always worked, whether through taking in washing, mending etc or helping their husbands run a family business or in factories or on the land. Middle and upper classes have always been much smaller so not a large enough group to impact. The growth of middle classes in the Victorian era fueled the idea that women don't work I think.

I suspect that inflation, house prices and the growth of the nuclear family have had the biggest impact on women working. As house prices have outstripped a single persons wage both family members need to work to afford property. The lack of help from family with child care, coupled with expensive child care places again encourages both parents to work.

As to where the jobs have come from? Finance sector, retail sector, education and those employed by the state are my guess.

As I said, I could be talking crap so no offense taken if anyone disagrees :o

American working practices

History of women in the workforce

And certainly only the wealthiest would not be expected to work at all in their lives - even the victorian idea of the homemaker applied to women who were married. Women and girls worked before they were married across the classes in all except the wealthiest I think.

I think partly because we consume so much more in material terms, more stuff in our houses, more holidays and meals out, more toys for our kids etc. Huge increases in the amount of fuel and electric used.

Porto's point is correct as well of course.

When WAS this society when "most" women were not in paid employent? I beleive that after WWII, women were encouraged to leave the workplace to make room for returning soldiers - leading to the rosy idyll of the housewife, but my understanding is that "working class" women, at least, always worked.

Lots of people in the workforce at the moment working less hours than they want. The model in the UK is you work as much as poss - that's the culture - so apart from when people need to reduce their hours it generally just doesn't occur to them - and isn't available anyway - and in our work culture would adversely affect their opportunities.

Salaries have decreased in real terms over the years (apart from v highly paid people whose have sky-rocketed)

House prices have gone through the roof

So while you used to be able to have a reasonable life on one income now in most parts of the country you need 2

I don't understand why you say women are being paid for care work and community responsibilities?

Because business doesn't work on the premise of people wanting to work less, but more - ever more power and ever more money.

Your question assumes that there is a fixed amount of work to be shared out among the available workforce. There isn't. The amount of work available expands and contracts due to many factors. Employers try to get more from existing workers as it is cheaper than taking on extra staff.
Teachers work longer hours now than in the 1960 s, despite smaller classes, because they are expected to do much more paperwork, attend more meetings etc.
Similarly new technology, which was expected to reduce workload for office workers, has actually increased it.