To not understand how housewives of yesteryear could afford to stay home but being a SAHM is a lifestyle choice now?

[PeachyParisian]

Am I missing something really obvious? Or is it just a case of the cost of living rising and our standards of living increasing too? How could everyone manage to get by on just one wage?
I understand that work wasn't really an option for most women but traditionally families got by on one wage didn't they? When did that stop being possible for so many?

Cost of housing

Housing costs!!!!

Plus, its a myth. Look back 100 years. Do you really think Victorian working class were SAHMs?

Cost of living has risen and wages haven't. A man's wage used to be intended to support mother and children too. now it's expected that most families have 2 wages coming in.

Cost of housing, cost of stuff we all think we need, foreign holidays etc. if we all did without the stuff we think we need then a family could probably live on one wage.

Housing. That's all.

It stopped around the same time people started paying stupid prices for houses.

housing and working class women often worked.

Wages were much more in line with the cost of living and housing was much less expensive - therefore one modest earner could support a family and pay the mortgage while the other parent (generally the mother), stayed at home. My dad was a small town solicitor and managed this. He also put two DC through private school and we had a 2-week SC holiday (often abroad), every year too. That would certainly not be possible nowadays.

Housing obviously.

Standards of living have changed too. My mum had a friend at school who was made to wash her hair with washing powder to save money.

Wages stagnated. Cost of living soared, including housing. Rising expections of what an acceptable standard of living is - people go out more, eat out more often, have more gadgets and white goods, pursue expensive hobbies - and they think they're entitled to all of those, because it's normal now.

No way is that true in the SE perfectly purple. Unless you earn a high wage, or bought a house early enough, you need two wages to pay mortgage/bills.

Yes, the cost of living in general is more expensive now, but the biggest thing is housing costs compared to wages.

I think we all expect a higher standard of living now as well, people feel hard done by and as if they're missing out if they don't get a holiday every year, whereas in the past a holiday even in this country was seen as a big luxury.

As all your base says. At the poorer end of the scale the man was normally the bread winner and although the woman wasn't in regular paid employment, jobs such as taking in washing to earn a little more, were common place.

Housing! Married women's tax allowance, universal child benefit.

It is mostly housing, but also the labour force was somewhat smaller as (at least middle class) married women weren't expected to work and it was expected that a man's wage had a to support a family.

Probably a mixture of things. Plus I'm fairly sure that my GPs weren't sahm.

The cost of living has probably increased, but our expectations are higher. I mean we have far more luxuries now.

1. Housing costs.
2. Fuel costs (heating / electric / petrol)
3. Food costs.

These things have all increased at a rate that FAR FAR outstrips the rate at which wages have increased.

In the past a professional man's wage could comfortably afford the cost of housing and eating. Now, on the whole, it can't.

I am able to be a SAHM as my fiancée earns an above average wage, I am lucky, but I'm also prepared for that to change at any point and to get back to work as soon as I can. Job uncertainty is another reason why both parents often need to work. In the past 'jobs for life' were not like hen's teeth. Nowadays you can be employed on Monday and facing redundancy on Friday - it's scary shit.

Not so purple
I earn an above average wage and couldnt afford a 2 bed flat in my area, that doesnt inclide food or childcare costs.
We couldnt manage on my wage.

Ah I hadn't thought of that, I know that housing costs have risen but I didn't equate that with it being a higher proportion of wages IYSWIM.

Most people these days have at least one tv, the Internet, a washing machine, buy new clothes, have central heating.

Years ago it wasn't whether you could afford to put the heating on, but whether you could buy coal for the fire.

I realise how stupid that sounds haha

I think housing is the killer. All the other factors you can cope with by being super frugal but especially if you can't afford to buy, rent just kills you.

Historically plenty of wives will have worked, as AllYourBase points out, particularly among the poorer parts of society.

And yes, cost of living. Housing costs have risen massively compared to income, costs of private schools are also rising faster than income, university fees, etc.
Plus, you can argue that people now have higher expectations in some ways - having things like foreign holidays, cars, labour saving devices and electronic gadgets in the home are seen as normal, when a few generations ago that kind of thing would have been considered luxuries for most people.