The Servant Problem

 Anne here. Recently Joanna blogged about what a Regency-era maid would wear, and last year Nicola blogged about the life of a lady's maid. I, on the other hand am pondering the development of what used to be called "the servant problem" and reflecting on where we are with that today.

Rich people have always had servants. Back in the Regency, even mildly well-off people kept at least one or two servants. A young bachelor living in "digs" rented rooms would still probably have a manservant or valet, and his landlady would undoubtedly have a cook and an army of maids to keep the building clean.

There's a passage in Georgette Heyer's Friday's Child that has always amused me. Young Lord Sheringham, having eloped with a childhood friend, rejects the magnificence of his family town house and instead rents a house in Half Moon Street. (That's a photo of Half Moon St I took some years ago.)

The matter of staff is then discussed with the family man of business: "Finally, it was decided that a cook, a butler, two abigails and a page-boy or footman should, in addition to his lordship's man, her ladyship's personal maid, a coachman, two grooms and the Tiger, be sufficient to ensure the young couple a moderate degree of comfort."

Yes, seven indoor servants and four for the horses should do it.

However over time, as the industrial revolution kicked in, offering more employment opportunities to the working classes, and large houses became more and more expensive to run, servants became more expensive to keep. WW1 in particular, put a big dent in the availability — and willingness— of people to be servants.

Even here, in Melbourne, Australia, the pinch was felt. A school I used to work in was one of a number of schools established in the 1920's (by the government) as a Girls' Domestic Arts School. It was aimed to overcome 'the servant problem' — the shortage of well trained, cheap servants that happened after the war. The idea was that the daughters of the working classes would be trained in housework and work as servants until they were married, when they would then raise a clean and decent family. The girls (who no doubt did most of the housework at home anyway) were to be given a thorough training in the domestic arts, as well as a basic school curriculum. Note the domestic maid style of uniforms worn by the girls in the pic. Quite Victorian looking.

The hidden flaw in this plan to enable the rich matrons of Melbourne to get themselves well-trained servants was the selection of the teaching staff. Only unmarried single women were allowed to teach in those days, and many of the well educated spinsters employed in these schools had no intention of training clever girls for a future of domestic drudgery. Career women themselves, they were ambitious for their students, and as well as a thorough grounding in domestic arts, they gave the girls the kind of academic education that would enable them to have careers. Rather than a training ground for servants for the rich, these schools developed a reputation for academic excellence.

The "servant problem" worsened after WW2, as education became more widespread and more and more jobs were available that didn't involve people being subservient. Servants became more and more something only the very rich could afford. The mildly well-off had to make do with a daily or weekly "help" and most domestic work fell to wives and daughters.

As we all know, the growth of "working wives" meant many women did two jobs. My mother was a teacher, working full-time, and caring in the evening for a husband and four children. When I was born, no replacement for her was sent to the country school where she worked, and so she went back to school — with me in a bassinette. And fifty kids in a classroom. She ran herself ragged, my mother, as did so many women of that era — as do so many women still do today.

These days, we're starting to come full circle, and I'm wondering if the servant problem has finally been solved. While few of us have actual servants, there is a huge growth industry in the kind of jobs that servants used to do; house cleaning, washing, ironing, gardening, mowing, window-washing — the specialist areas are multiplying. Even cookery — so many people nowadays buy take-out or pre-prepared meals delivered to their door or purchased in supermarkets, whether for special diets or simple convenience.

Recently I bumped into one of the girls I used to teach at that former Domestic Arts High School (which, by the way, no longer teaches domestic arts.) She now has her own thriving business — a cleaning business that employs more than thirty people. I thought those old-time teachers would approve. It's a sign of the times.

As for me, I don't have anyone doing my chores for me, apart from my butler, Dwayne. Dwayne? He's a one-trick butler, but he's essential to my peace of mind. He lives in my phone and says "No-one is available to take your call. Please leave a message after the tone." I couldn't do without Dwayne. 

What about you — do you have any kind of domestic help? And if you could have any kind of help you wanted, which would you choose?

Comments

[Carol Marinelli]

Wonderful! I would need an army to sort me out. My Dwayne is called Sean -- a lovely Irish voice that tells me to turn around when possible or that I have reached my destination. I would have to tidy up for a cleaner :-) Now we worry what they think instead of the other way around cxxxx

[Anne Gracie]

Carol, that's so true. I remember once when mum got someone to come in to help with the housework, she'd run around before work getting the house ready for the cleaner. ;)

I do like the sound of your Sean. I don't have a tom-tom -- I still use maps.

[Maria M.]

Hello - I've had household staff when I was posted in foreign countries, usually just one houskeeper, but also a couple (driver and cook/housekeeper) as well as a trained cook, driver and housekeeper. My experience is that they tend to be more trouble than they're worth, and the loss of privacy when you have live-in servants is a real drawback. Not to speak of dishonest servants you have to fire, drivers who crash your car, cooks who don't understand the first thing about hygiene....

However, all those years with servants have spoilt me to the extent that I hate cleaning and ironing. Now I only have a nice young woman come in once a week, sometimes less. She does in three to four hours what would take me a whole day of housework. That's really as much as you need if you don't have a mansion or need to entertain regularly.

[Ella Quinn]

When I lived with my grandparents we had a live in housekeeper, gardener and driver. Since I swing wildly from insisting everything be spotless, to not noticing the mess, I've had a once a week maid for years now.

[Samantha]

We are lucky enough to have a cleaning service come in every other week so that we can devote the weekends and evenings to our 17 month old daughter. I consider it well worth the cost.

[Jo Banks]

I hate housework I think it was invented by some evil genie ! But when someone pays you to do it - - that changes things !I've been 'doing' for my collection of ladies for over ten years now and believe you me I ain't in the slightest bit subservient !!The hours give me plenty of time to do what I want and I know it is sad but I quite like ironing ! It is perfect for thinking out plots and deciding what the heroine should do at the end of say chapter three. Then I can come home and write it down.The state of my own house we will not mention !!

[Sherrie Holmes]

Anne, I used to have a girl come in once a week to clean. She did the stuff I hated: dusting and vacuuming, and scouring the bathtub and toilet.

Your mention of our coming full circle with "servants" specializing in house cleaning, washing, ironing, etc. made me blink. That is such an astute observation, one I hadn't thought of. But I do believe you are right!

As a teenager, I used to do the ironing for my boyfriend's mother. She hated ironing, and I liked the extra money, so it was a win-win. We spent many happy hours visiting while I ironed for her.

[Trish Morey]

Anne, I had no idea about the school for domestics - how interesting, and I love it that their plans were skuppered by clever women who wanted their charges to aim higher!

I'd love to have a cleaner but I'd have to have a major clean up first. I'm afraid housework is what gets done if I'm having people over, but then I don't fancy being remembered as a fine house cleaner. Actually there's no chance of that:-)

Trishx

[Anne Gracie]

Maria, you've reminded me of when my parents lived in Malaysia and employing servants was more or less a requirement of the position. Mum, for the first time in her life, wasn't working, and the fact that everything was done for her was wonderful in some ways, but frustrating in others. She wasn't used to having time on her hands. She fled the house and took on volunteer work wherever she could find it.

Their amah was wonderful, a lovely woman who was an excellent cook and who seemed to perform the housework invisibly. I remember how my dirty clothes used to just disappear and reappear washed, lightly starched and ironed. But to do that job she had to live away from her family for most of the week, which I think was very hard.

[Anne Gracie]

Ella and Samantha, I think a regular house cleaning service would be a fine thing to have. Quite a few of my friends have one and it makes their lives so much easier, I might cave one day.

[Anne Gracie]

Jo, one of my sisters took on housecleaning for a while many years ago, and she felt the same -- not so keen on her own housework, but pay her and that's a whole new story.

And I don't think it's sad enjoying ironing — I don't do a lot of ironing in the usual day to day scheme of things, but I remember one particular day when I did a huge stack of ironing — I forget why — and I enjoyed it so much I even ironed the sheets! It's a bit trancelike, and the scent of a hit iron on freshly washed linen is lovely.

[Anne Gracie]

Sherrie, yes, I've noticed more and more specialists jobs being done, mainly from noticing the firms that my neighbours use, garden people, window washers, vacuum steam-cleaners, regular cleaners and realizing how many of my friends also have them in. Made me think -- who says people don't have servants anymore?

[Anne Gracie]

Trish, I love that aspect of the story, too, love that the teachers quietly undermined the purpose of the schools to the benefit of their students. A nice early example of everyday feminism at work.

Most people don't know about that part of the story. When I was working there, a big anniversary was coming up and some of the teachers researched the origins of the school and shared their discoveries. Those schools were among the earliest government high schools established in Victoria, and they're called either high schools or secondary colleges now. There were boys' schools too — producing tradesmen I presume — but they're now academic, too, and have gone co-ed. The girls schools have stayed girls only schools. You can just still see the 'Girls Domestic Arts School" in slightly raised letters on the front building - painted over and hidden beneath a more prominent Secondary College sign.

[Linda S]

My great-grandfather made my grandmother take a course in Domestic Science in Edwardian Scotland. He believed girls should be trained to do something, having seen too many poor widows of miners. (He was a mine manager.) My mother still has her mother's notebooks and needlework samples. Luckily, my grandmother never had to go "out to work" and used her training as a wife and mother.

[Andrea Penrose]

Oh, Anne, please send in the "tweenies"! Dusting, sweeeping, scrubbing the kitchen and bathrooms—-I'd feel like a princess . . .or at least a countess

[nancy]

Why is what wives and daughters expected to do considered drudgery and demeaning if another does it?
There have been a few times when I have hired domestic help,. IN the Philippines all of the military officers' families were expected to have house girls. The woman with 5 children under 5 ( 2 sets of twins) loved it and had seven maids just for the children alone!! However, I found it awkward at first. The hosue girl we finally hired knew her job and made i easy for me. She was a pleasure . Anotyher was difficult.
One other time we had some one come in weekly to do the cleaning. I didn't know how to treat the person. It seems that being too friendly can be as unwelcome as being too harsh.
SOmetimes I think one has to have grown up wirth servants to know how to act around them. Even then it would make a difference whether one was accustomed to having four servants or twenty four. Historically, I have often wondered how Elizabeth Bennet whose family had a few servants, and who never learned her way around a kitchen-- coped with being mistress of a house that probably housed dozens of servants.

[Anne Gracie]

Linda, how fascinating. Your great-grandfather was a very wise man. If girls don't have any ind of training or education, they have so few options if they have to support themselves.

Andrea, the headmistress used to live on site in a flat, and the girls would be rostered on to do her laundry and cleaning. Imagine scrubbing your headmistress's bloomers!

[Anne Gracie]

Nancy, I think cleaning your own house is quite different to working in someone else's house. Fine if you need the money, but if you're bight, why not aim for the best job you can get?

I think you're right that growing up with servants teaches you to live with them better. I also think that most problems come from poor training on both sides.

Most of my friend who have weekly cleaners are absent when they come. I think that solution works for both parties.

[Annette]

No household help here. But, when I was young, my mother had someone who came in twice a week. When I had my own home I became OCD trying to keep my home as spotless as my mother's home had been. Picture my house where the magazines had to be at a certain angle on a coffee table or (back in the day when people smoked) every ashtray cleaned after someone smoked one cigarette. I am surprised that someone did not murder me in my sleep for being such a nut.

[Donna]

I don't have any help, but I then I live in a condo, so not all that much to clean.

I'm the daughter of a cleaning fanatic. I once stopped by my parents' house to check on my mother who had the flu. I noticed her bed was made and I found her in her bathroom leaning heavily on the vanity and cleaning the sink! I asked her what in the world she was doing as she was sick and needed to be in bed. Her reply, "Oh I can't have my bed unmade this late in the day (it was still morning!), and I clean the bathroom everyday." I never could convince her that an occupied bed when one was ill was *not* considered unmade!

In retaliation, I have a sign in my bedroom featuring an unmade bed that reads, "If it's good enough to get out of, it's good enough to get into." :-)

[Mary Jo PUtney]

++ many of the well educated spinsters employed in these schools had no intention of training clever girls for a future of domestic drudgery.++

Feminist subversion in action--I LOVE IT! And so the "servant problem" ocntinued. *G*

I also love your insight about how all that tedious domestic work has been outsourced, though I hadn't thought of it in those terms. Even as I type, the cleaning lady who comes in one morning every two weeks is vacuuming downstairs while the cats and I hide in my office. (We all hate the vacuum cleaner.) When she's here, I go to Curves and run errands for as much of the time as possible.

A lawn service does the mowing, raking, and snow removal for this whole little circle of 9 houses, and I have a German lady who does landscaping and flowers. I'm a great believer in hiring people to do what I don't want to do, and in paying them fairly. We no longer have servants, we have hard working small business people.

I also buy a lot of prepared foods from the local upscale grocer, especially when on deadline!

[Anne Gracie]

Annette and Donna, sounds like your mothers had the same kind of approach. It's interesting what we pick up from our parents — some of us copy them exactly, others decide it's too rigid and reject that approach. My mum used to work so hard, yet the house was never pristine.

[Anne Gracie]

Mary Jo, I'm all in favor of getting people in to do the jobs we don't want to do. Or can't do — I know people who have hired people to help them declutter their house.

I'm wondering where this domestic specialization will end.

[pv]

Unfortunately after working full time on weekdays, I joke that on weekends I am the cook, cleaning lady and laundry expert at home. In India where I am from.. we used to have servants to do the housework. In recent times maid servants in Bombay have unionized and demand a months paid holiday and better working conditions. Finally some modern benefits for those working in the servant trade. I am so happy that they are not being exploited anymore.

[Anne Gracie]

PV, yes, I think that was the main problem with the position of servant — the fact that their whole lives were at other people's beck and call. Once it takes on the features of other jobs — fair pay, holidays, etc, it's just another job.

My mother used to say after she and Dad had retired from their jobs, "Only one of us has retired — I'm still working full time!"

[theo]

I think if I won the lottery, I'd have someone come in once a week to clean. Then again, if I won the lottery, I'd buy a big enough house where I could have a couple live-ins. Who knows? There are pros and cons to everything.

Do I have a cleaner now? No. Just me, chief cook and bottle washer as the old saying goes. Is my house always clean? No again. I work and just don't have the umph at the end of the day so I clean on the weekends till I run out of steam and always miss something.

Oh well...the old saying is, your kids won''t remember how clean the house was as much as how much time you spent with them. That was my credo and I still stick to it.