How Domestic Help Has Declined Over The Years

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How Domestic Help Has Declined Over The Years
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• For as long back as historians care to remember,
  women either employed a maid, or they were one,
  and both roles gave a clear definition of their
  standing within society. Maids or servants, often
  lived in the home in which they worked and were
  responsible for a wide range of tasks, from
  cooking and cleaning to childcare.
• Nowadays, however, it is generally only those
  wealthiest members of society who employ maids,
  leading to a decline in the availability of such
  roles. If we think back to just a generation ago,
  before housewives from the middle classes began
  earning their own salaries, most were helped at
  home by nannies, cooks, and maids. The same
  cannot be said today.

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• Maids over the centuries
• If we look back to the 19th century, when authors
  were writing about female protagonists such as
  Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott, whatever their
  circumstances may have become, they would have
  been utterly shocked and appalled at the thought
  of having to sweep and clean their own floors,
  and doubtless wouldnt even have known where to
  begin!
• All middle, and upper-class families employed
  domestic workers at this period in history, and
  the workforce was cheap and in abundance. Most
  were unskilled and could be easily exploited,
  with little or no protection from their employers.

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• The number of women employed domestically
  increased throughout the mid 1900s and domestic
  service represented the leading occupation of
  women throughout the U.S.
• Domestic work wasnt appealing to native-born
  women due to the long hours, the lowly status and
  lack of freedom among many other reasons, and
  consequently, those domestic workers who were
  native to the country, came from pitifully poor
  and desperate backgrounds, and whom could not
  find work in any other vocation.
• In 1881, however, domestic workers started
  demanding more rights and more humane treatment,
  as many other types of workers had previously
  demanded and been granted.

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• Sadly, the rights of domestic workers were not
  considered to be worthy enough though, and they
  were denied the right to fairer treatment by both
  local and federal entities.
• Black women as domestic workers
• In the early 20th Century, the Great Migration
  saw many thousands of African Americans migrate
  from the rural south to the urban north, and
  black women began to take over the majority of
  work in the domestic sector.

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• Closer to the present day
• By the time the 1970s had approached, advances
  in home technology and the arrival of ready- made
  food had reduced not only the workload for
  housewives, but the rigor of it, and domestic
  helps soon began to be seen as a luxury for those
  who still felt housework to be beneath their
  status. In the 1980s, maids and other domestic
  workers were the butt of many a joke,
  particularly on TV sitcoms.
• Thanks to the dogged pursuit of fair and equal
  pay and treatment for domestic workers, by those
  who refused to sit back and watch them continue
  to be exploited, maids today can rightfully enjoy
  key rights and protections.

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• However, the trend nowadays is to employ maids on
  an hourly basis rather than having them live-in,
  and while their services are still proving as
  useful today as they ever were, in general,
  domestic workers are not as common in modern
  households.
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