Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195329117
- eISBN:
- 9780199949496
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195329117.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter analyzes the first successful unionization of home care as part of the civil rights surge among black women domestics. Central to this process were the reorganization of domestic work ...
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This chapter analyzes the first successful unionization of home care as part of the civil rights surge among black women domestics. Central to this process were the reorganization of domestic work and feminist efforts to improve the job through the National Committee on Household Employment and the Household Technicians of America. The legal status of home care and domestic service diverged in 1975 when the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) classified home care workers as elder companions outside the law. But, as invisible as home care workers appeared, they proved more traceable than domestics laboring for individual families. So when service sector unions sought to organize domestics, they found home attendants instead by untangling the administrative maze and money trail of federal and local programs. Their strategies reflected the prior contracting of home care by the state, with community organizers in California, notably the United Domestic Workers of America in San Diego, pressuring county supervisors and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in New York City bargaining with individual agencies. By the early 1980s, SEIU formally acknowledged that these workers were caregivers more than cleaners, part of health care unionism.Less
This chapter analyzes the first successful unionization of home care as part of the civil rights surge among black women domestics. Central to this process were the reorganization of domestic work and feminist efforts to improve the job through the National Committee on Household Employment and the Household Technicians of America. The legal status of home care and domestic service diverged in 1975 when the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) classified home care workers as elder companions outside the law. But, as invisible as home care workers appeared, they proved more traceable than domestics laboring for individual families. So when service sector unions sought to organize domestics, they found home attendants instead by untangling the administrative maze and money trail of federal and local programs. Their strategies reflected the prior contracting of home care by the state, with community organizers in California, notably the United Domestic Workers of America in San Diego, pressuring county supervisors and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in New York City bargaining with individual agencies. By the early 1980s, SEIU formally acknowledged that these workers were caregivers more than cleaners, part of health care unionism.
JOANNA BOURKE
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203858
- eISBN:
- 9780191676024
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203858.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
The ‘servant question’ was answered by the substitution of unwaged labour for the cash nexus. Although the issue of domestic service has attracted many British and American scholars, explorations of ...
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The ‘servant question’ was answered by the substitution of unwaged labour for the cash nexus. Although the issue of domestic service has attracted many British and American scholars, explorations of service in these countries contribute little to an understanding of this kind of employment in rural Ireland. Most historians of domestic service concentrate either on explaining urban patterns or on examining the habits of wealthy employers. A popular explanation for the decline of service in Ireland is the failure of Irish cities to grow significantly. Since, however, most Irish servants were employed in rural areas, this argument is unconvincing. Clearly, new explanations must be called upon if one is to understand the role of servants in rural Ireland. A key to understanding rural domestic service is that the work was not necessarily ‘domestic’. Rural domestic servants were expected to do a wide range of activities, both indoor and outdoor.Less
The ‘servant question’ was answered by the substitution of unwaged labour for the cash nexus. Although the issue of domestic service has attracted many British and American scholars, explorations of service in these countries contribute little to an understanding of this kind of employment in rural Ireland. Most historians of domestic service concentrate either on explaining urban patterns or on examining the habits of wealthy employers. A popular explanation for the decline of service in Ireland is the failure of Irish cities to grow significantly. Since, however, most Irish servants were employed in rural areas, this argument is unconvincing. Clearly, new explanations must be called upon if one is to understand the role of servants in rural Ireland. A key to understanding rural domestic service is that the work was not necessarily ‘domestic’. Rural domestic servants were expected to do a wide range of activities, both indoor and outdoor.
Lucy Delap
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199572946
- eISBN:
- 9780191728846
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572946.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This book tells the story of lives and labour within twentieth-century British homes. From great houses to suburbs and slums, it charts the interactions of servants and employers and the intense ...
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This book tells the story of lives and labour within twentieth-century British homes. From great houses to suburbs and slums, it charts the interactions of servants and employers and the intense controversies and emotions they inspired. Historians have seen domestic service as an obsolete or redundant sector from the middle of the twentieth century. The book challenges this by linking the early-twentieth-century employment of maids and cooks to later practices of employing au pairs, mothers helps, and cleaners. Domestic service was a persistent and widespread institution, in which working-class as well as middle- and upper-class households might employ a ‘char’ or childminder. Rather than the century in which ‘housewife’ became a universal aspiration, the twentieth century was one in which ‘the servantless home’ was always an unstable and often unpopular experiment. Middle-class individuals retained their expectations of ‘help’ within the home, and though some features of the relationships of domestic service changed, many structural elements remained constant. In this book, the employment of men and migrant workers is examined, as well as the role of laughter and erotic desire in shaping domestic service. Finally, the memory of domestic service and the role of the past in shaping and mediating the present is examined through heritage and televisual sources, from Upstairs, Downstairs to The 1900 House. It points to new directions in cultural history through its engagement in innovative areas such as the history of emotions and cultural memory. Through its attention to the contemporary rise in the employment of domestic workers, the book sets ‘modern’ Britain in a new and compelling historical context.Less
This book tells the story of lives and labour within twentieth-century British homes. From great houses to suburbs and slums, it charts the interactions of servants and employers and the intense controversies and emotions they inspired. Historians have seen domestic service as an obsolete or redundant sector from the middle of the twentieth century. The book challenges this by linking the early-twentieth-century employment of maids and cooks to later practices of employing au pairs, mothers helps, and cleaners. Domestic service was a persistent and widespread institution, in which working-class as well as middle- and upper-class households might employ a ‘char’ or childminder. Rather than the century in which ‘housewife’ became a universal aspiration, the twentieth century was one in which ‘the servantless home’ was always an unstable and often unpopular experiment. Middle-class individuals retained their expectations of ‘help’ within the home, and though some features of the relationships of domestic service changed, many structural elements remained constant. In this book, the employment of men and migrant workers is examined, as well as the role of laughter and erotic desire in shaping domestic service. Finally, the memory of domestic service and the role of the past in shaping and mediating the present is examined through heritage and televisual sources, from Upstairs, Downstairs to The 1900 House. It points to new directions in cultural history through its engagement in innovative areas such as the history of emotions and cultural memory. Through its attention to the contemporary rise in the employment of domestic workers, the book sets ‘modern’ Britain in a new and compelling historical context.
Lucy Delap
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199572946
- eISBN:
- 9780191728846
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572946.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
The Introduction summarizes the content of the book, and sets out the background labour market situation. Drawing on census figures and examples of local and regional employment patterns, it charts ...
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The Introduction summarizes the content of the book, and sets out the background labour market situation. Drawing on census figures and examples of local and regional employment patterns, it charts the changes across the twentieth century for the employment of domestic workers. The methodology of the book is outlined, with particular attention to cultural history, oral history, and the history of emotions. The British context is contrasted with comparable trends in other countries, and the work of migrants in domestic service is discussed. Male servants are discussed, and the challenges of the source material are explored.Less
The Introduction summarizes the content of the book, and sets out the background labour market situation. Drawing on census figures and examples of local and regional employment patterns, it charts the changes across the twentieth century for the employment of domestic workers. The methodology of the book is outlined, with particular attention to cultural history, oral history, and the history of emotions. The British context is contrasted with comparable trends in other countries, and the work of migrants in domestic service is discussed. Male servants are discussed, and the challenges of the source material are explored.
Bridget Hill
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206217
- eISBN:
- 9780191677021
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206217.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about domestic servants in England during the 18th century. This book aims to establish that domestic service was an important ...
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This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about domestic servants in England during the 18th century. This book aims to establish that domestic service was an important occupation and that it was never a monolithic phenomenon unchanging over time. It discusses the different roles of male and female servants, their moral economy, and the sexuality and sexual vulnerability of female servants. It also examines the conditions of kin and paupers who served as servants and literate and literary servants.Less
This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about domestic servants in England during the 18th century. This book aims to establish that domestic service was an important occupation and that it was never a monolithic phenomenon unchanging over time. It discusses the different roles of male and female servants, their moral economy, and the sexuality and sexual vulnerability of female servants. It also examines the conditions of kin and paupers who served as servants and literate and literary servants.
Lucy Delap
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199572946
- eISBN:
- 9780191728846
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572946.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter describes the varying circumstances in which young people became servants, and their experiences as servants. It explores the relationship between servants and their parents, the ...
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This chapter describes the varying circumstances in which young people became servants, and their experiences as servants. It explores the relationship between servants and their parents, the influence of mothers, and the significance of wages. The work of cleaners and chars is foregrounded, and the existing historiography is criticized. The persistent tendency to see servants only as victims is rejected through attention to the very diverse narratives that emerge from oral histories and memoirs. Finally, social class is explored within these narratives, and held to be an insufficient framework for capturing the subjectivities of domestic serviceLess
This chapter describes the varying circumstances in which young people became servants, and their experiences as servants. It explores the relationship between servants and their parents, the influence of mothers, and the significance of wages. The work of cleaners and chars is foregrounded, and the existing historiography is criticized. The persistent tendency to see servants only as victims is rejected through attention to the very diverse narratives that emerge from oral histories and memoirs. Finally, social class is explored within these narratives, and held to be an insufficient framework for capturing the subjectivities of domestic service
Lucy Delap
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199572946
- eISBN:
- 9780191728846
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572946.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter investigates the late-twentieth-century popular memory of domestic service, and suggests the multiple ways in which service mediates the past for British audiences. It illustrates both ...
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This chapter investigates the late-twentieth-century popular memory of domestic service, and suggests the multiple ways in which service mediates the past for British audiences. It illustrates both past certainties of belonging and exploitation and inequality. It asks how we come to remember service at particular moments. Two major areas of memory are explored; first, the televisual depictions of service within situation comedies, dramas, feature films, and reality television, and second, the heritage performances within British ‘great house’ properties. Drawing on interviews with curators and interpreters of these settings, as well as the popular responses to television and cinema, the chapter argues for the positive role that the re-enactments of service can make to popular audiences, while remaining critical of its perceived lack of connection with late-twentieth-century employment of domestic workers, and its inability to represent the very widespread phenomenon of middle-class servant-keeping.Less
This chapter investigates the late-twentieth-century popular memory of domestic service, and suggests the multiple ways in which service mediates the past for British audiences. It illustrates both past certainties of belonging and exploitation and inequality. It asks how we come to remember service at particular moments. Two major areas of memory are explored; first, the televisual depictions of service within situation comedies, dramas, feature films, and reality television, and second, the heritage performances within British ‘great house’ properties. Drawing on interviews with curators and interpreters of these settings, as well as the popular responses to television and cinema, the chapter argues for the positive role that the re-enactments of service can make to popular audiences, while remaining critical of its perceived lack of connection with late-twentieth-century employment of domestic workers, and its inability to represent the very widespread phenomenon of middle-class servant-keeping.
James Hinton
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199243297
- eISBN:
- 9780191714054
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199243297.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
To a degree unusual among social institutions, WVS was the creation of a single individual — Lady Reading. For this reason, this chapter explores her belief in the importance of ‘character’, the ...
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To a degree unusual among social institutions, WVS was the creation of a single individual — Lady Reading. For this reason, this chapter explores her belief in the importance of ‘character’, the highly-charged, mystical language with which she inspired her followers, and her autocratic and hierarchical style of leadership. It also deals with her dismissive attitude to the claims of domesticity on women's time — ‘put nation before husband!’ — and contemporary discussion of the relationship between the supply of domestic servants and volunteering by middle-class women.Less
To a degree unusual among social institutions, WVS was the creation of a single individual — Lady Reading. For this reason, this chapter explores her belief in the importance of ‘character’, the highly-charged, mystical language with which she inspired her followers, and her autocratic and hierarchical style of leadership. It also deals with her dismissive attitude to the claims of domesticity on women's time — ‘put nation before husband!’ — and contemporary discussion of the relationship between the supply of domestic servants and volunteering by middle-class women.
Lucy Delap
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199572946
- eISBN:
- 9780191728846
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572946.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter charts the laughter prompted by the everyday interactions of employers and servants that were widely represented in music hall, cinema, periodicals, newspapers, and other forms of mass ...
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This chapter charts the laughter prompted by the everyday interactions of employers and servants that were widely represented in music hall, cinema, periodicals, newspapers, and other forms of mass leisure. It suggests that laughter is an intensely revealing emotion that structures relationships of inequality and offers both forms of resistance and support for the status quo. The use made by scholars of laughter is reviewed, and some new directions are suggested. The chapter assess the failed jokes, and shared jokes, of the century, and suggests that cultural representations of service, cleaning, and char work continued to be widely found funny during the period between World War II and the 1980s when the numbers employed in service were very low. Service continued to have cultural resonance, and has profoundly shaped traditions of British humour.Less
This chapter charts the laughter prompted by the everyday interactions of employers and servants that were widely represented in music hall, cinema, periodicals, newspapers, and other forms of mass leisure. It suggests that laughter is an intensely revealing emotion that structures relationships of inequality and offers both forms of resistance and support for the status quo. The use made by scholars of laughter is reviewed, and some new directions are suggested. The chapter assess the failed jokes, and shared jokes, of the century, and suggests that cultural representations of service, cleaning, and char work continued to be widely found funny during the period between World War II and the 1980s when the numbers employed in service were very low. Service continued to have cultural resonance, and has profoundly shaped traditions of British humour.
Bridget Hill
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206217
- eISBN:
- 9780191677021
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206217.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
This chapter examines the reasons behind the employment of male and female servants in England during the 18th century. It analyses the differences between the status of male and female servants in ...
More
This chapter examines the reasons behind the employment of male and female servants in England during the 18th century. It analyses the differences between the status of male and female servants in terms of wages and working conditions and the sexual division of labour in households. Most female servants worked as lady's maids, chambermaids, and kitchen maids while the males usually worked as valets, footmen, butlers, and coachmen. However, in the course of the 18th century the number of make servants began to decline and by the mid-19th century the majority of domestic servants were female.Less
This chapter examines the reasons behind the employment of male and female servants in England during the 18th century. It analyses the differences between the status of male and female servants in terms of wages and working conditions and the sexual division of labour in households. Most female servants worked as lady's maids, chambermaids, and kitchen maids while the males usually worked as valets, footmen, butlers, and coachmen. However, in the course of the 18th century the number of make servants began to decline and by the mid-19th century the majority of domestic servants were female.
Bridget Hill
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206217
- eISBN:
- 9780191677021
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206217.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on domestic servants in England during the 18th century. The analyses reveals that the term domestic servant has been used loosely and that most ...
More
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on domestic servants in England during the 18th century. The analyses reveals that the term domestic servant has been used loosely and that most servants did not have distinct tasks in the household. It also suggests that household size and income are not the only bases for determining the number of servants in a household. This chapter also discusses the legitimacy of using literary sources as evidence on the nature of domestic service and the conditions of service.Less
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on domestic servants in England during the 18th century. The analyses reveals that the term domestic servant has been used loosely and that most servants did not have distinct tasks in the household. It also suggests that household size and income are not the only bases for determining the number of servants in a household. This chapter also discusses the legitimacy of using literary sources as evidence on the nature of domestic service and the conditions of service.
Bridget Hill
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206217
- eISBN:
- 9780191677021
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206217.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
The importance of domestic service in the 18th century has long been recognized by historians but apart from a number of recent controversial articles, this is the first detailed study of the subject ...
More
The importance of domestic service in the 18th century has long been recognized by historians but apart from a number of recent controversial articles, this is the first detailed study of the subject since J. Jean Hecht's book of 1956. Its chapter question the stereotype of the domestic servant — usually male and most often in large households employing many servants where a strict hierarchy prevailed — that has dominated all discussion hitherto. Using 18th-century diaries, journals, and memoirs as well as the press and literature of the period, the book examines the lives of the majority of domestic servants, who were employed in more modest establishments, or in single or two-servant households. The book looks at the life of the pauper apprentices to service, paid little or nothing for their efforts, and at the frequency with which both near and distant kin were employed as unpaid, or badly-paid, domestic servants. It also examines the vulnerability of female domestic servants to sexual harassment and discusses the sexuality of servants.Less
The importance of domestic service in the 18th century has long been recognized by historians but apart from a number of recent controversial articles, this is the first detailed study of the subject since J. Jean Hecht's book of 1956. Its chapter question the stereotype of the domestic servant — usually male and most often in large households employing many servants where a strict hierarchy prevailed — that has dominated all discussion hitherto. Using 18th-century diaries, journals, and memoirs as well as the press and literature of the period, the book examines the lives of the majority of domestic servants, who were employed in more modest establishments, or in single or two-servant households. The book looks at the life of the pauper apprentices to service, paid little or nothing for their efforts, and at the frequency with which both near and distant kin were employed as unpaid, or badly-paid, domestic servants. It also examines the vulnerability of female domestic servants to sexual harassment and discusses the sexuality of servants.
Eleanor Hubbard
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199609345
- eISBN:
- 9780191739088
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609345.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter argues that most women in London were originally migrants from elsewhere in England, who arrived in the city around the age of eighteen to serve as maidservants. It presents quantitative ...
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This chapter argues that most women in London were originally migrants from elsewhere in England, who arrived in the city around the age of eighteen to serve as maidservants. It presents quantitative data about the geographical origins of London women and compares their origins and ages at migration to the better‐known male apprentices. It also examines where maids settled, how they found employment, how long they remained in particular households, their mobility within the city, their status within the households in which they worked and their relationships with their masters and mistresses, how much they were paid, and the kinds of work that they did. The risks and benefits of migration are discussed, the greatest risk being the high levels of disease and the occasional epidemics of plague that swept the city.Less
This chapter argues that most women in London were originally migrants from elsewhere in England, who arrived in the city around the age of eighteen to serve as maidservants. It presents quantitative data about the geographical origins of London women and compares their origins and ages at migration to the better‐known male apprentices. It also examines where maids settled, how they found employment, how long they remained in particular households, their mobility within the city, their status within the households in which they worked and their relationships with their masters and mistresses, how much they were paid, and the kinds of work that they did. The risks and benefits of migration are discussed, the greatest risk being the high levels of disease and the occasional epidemics of plague that swept the city.
Amy M. Froide
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199270606
- eISBN:
- 9780191710216
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199270606.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter examines the work of women who did not have husbands and did not participate in the household economy of the early modern era. Investigating primarily urban women from labouring, craft, ...
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This chapter examines the work of women who did not have husbands and did not participate in the household economy of the early modern era. Investigating primarily urban women from labouring, craft, trade, and mercantile families, it explores the range of work performed by singlewomen. It also examines the obstacles faced by never-married women in towns that did not grant such women the status of independent mistresses, and the women who overcame the odds to break into shopkeeping and the new luxury trades emerging in the late 17th and 18th centuries.Less
This chapter examines the work of women who did not have husbands and did not participate in the household economy of the early modern era. Investigating primarily urban women from labouring, craft, trade, and mercantile families, it explores the range of work performed by singlewomen. It also examines the obstacles faced by never-married women in towns that did not grant such women the status of independent mistresses, and the women who overcame the odds to break into shopkeeping and the new luxury trades emerging in the late 17th and 18th centuries.
Lucy Delap
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199572946
- eISBN:
- 9780191728846
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572946.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
The conclusion summarizes the arguments made by the book, and offers vignettes of domestic service relationships that illustrate the contradictory emotions often felt about it. Change over time is ...
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The conclusion summarizes the arguments made by the book, and offers vignettes of domestic service relationships that illustrate the contradictory emotions often felt about it. Change over time is summarized, and the powerful links between domestic service and forms of modernity or ‘modern living’ are emphasized. The ambivalence middle-class women felt for housework is re-emphasized.Less
The conclusion summarizes the arguments made by the book, and offers vignettes of domestic service relationships that illustrate the contradictory emotions often felt about it. Change over time is summarized, and the powerful links between domestic service and forms of modernity or ‘modern living’ are emphasized. The ambivalence middle-class women felt for housework is re-emphasized.
Vanessa H. May
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807834770
- eISBN:
- 9781469603094
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807877906_may
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
Through an analysis of women's reform, domestic worker activism, and cultural values attached to public and private space, this book explains how and why domestic workers, the largest category of ...
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Through an analysis of women's reform, domestic worker activism, and cultural values attached to public and private space, this book explains how and why domestic workers, the largest category of working women before 1940, were excluded from labor protections that formed the foundation of the welfare state. Looking at the debate over domestic service from both sides of the class divide, it assesses middle-class women's reform programs as well as household workers' efforts to determine their own working conditions. The author argues that working-class women sought to define the middle-class home as a workplace even as employers and reformers regarded the home as private space. The result was that labor reformers left domestic workers out of labor protections that covered other women workers in New York between the late nineteenth century and the New Deal. By recovering the history of domestic workers as activists in the debate over labor legislation, the author challenges depictions of domestics as passive workers and reformers as selfless advocates of working women. The book illuminates how the domestic-service debate turned the middle-class home inside out, making private problems public and bringing concerns such as labor conflict and government regulation into the middle-class home.Less
Through an analysis of women's reform, domestic worker activism, and cultural values attached to public and private space, this book explains how and why domestic workers, the largest category of working women before 1940, were excluded from labor protections that formed the foundation of the welfare state. Looking at the debate over domestic service from both sides of the class divide, it assesses middle-class women's reform programs as well as household workers' efforts to determine their own working conditions. The author argues that working-class women sought to define the middle-class home as a workplace even as employers and reformers regarded the home as private space. The result was that labor reformers left domestic workers out of labor protections that covered other women workers in New York between the late nineteenth century and the New Deal. By recovering the history of domestic workers as activists in the debate over labor legislation, the author challenges depictions of domestics as passive workers and reformers as selfless advocates of working women. The book illuminates how the domestic-service debate turned the middle-class home inside out, making private problems public and bringing concerns such as labor conflict and government regulation into the middle-class home.
Vanessa H. May
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807834770
- eISBN:
- 9781469603094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807877906_may.7
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter shows how high the stakes were for middle-class women in the public debate over domestic service. Unless and until female employers confronted the labor problem festering in their ...
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This chapter shows how high the stakes were for middle-class women in the public debate over domestic service. Unless and until female employers confronted the labor problem festering in their kitchens, experts and public observers agreed, they had no business committing themselves to other benevolent reform missions. Inez Godman, a muckraking journalist who disguised herself as a domestic for a series of investigative magazine articles, pointed to the hypocrisy of a National Consumers' League member signing petitions demanding chairs for store clerks “when her own maid is on her feet for at least 11 hours a day out of a working day of 14.” Home economist and social worker Jane Seymour Klink sympathetically described the suffering of one domestic who was never allowed to go to church, although her “employer subscribes liberally to foreign missions.”Less
This chapter shows how high the stakes were for middle-class women in the public debate over domestic service. Unless and until female employers confronted the labor problem festering in their kitchens, experts and public observers agreed, they had no business committing themselves to other benevolent reform missions. Inez Godman, a muckraking journalist who disguised herself as a domestic for a series of investigative magazine articles, pointed to the hypocrisy of a National Consumers' League member signing petitions demanding chairs for store clerks “when her own maid is on her feet for at least 11 hours a day out of a working day of 14.” Home economist and social worker Jane Seymour Klink sympathetically described the suffering of one domestic who was never allowed to go to church, although her “employer subscribes liberally to foreign missions.”
Andrew Urban
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780814785843
- eISBN:
- 9780814764749
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814785843.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Stymied by the refusal of “new” immigrant women from Eastern and Southern Europe to pursue work as domestic laborers, at the turn of the century middle-class employers reevaluated the fundamental ...
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Stymied by the refusal of “new” immigrant women from Eastern and Southern Europe to pursue work as domestic laborers, at the turn of the century middle-class employers reevaluated the fundamental utility of hired labor to the production of domesticity. Chapter 6 brings the book’s different narrative arcs together by engaging public and expert debates about whether domestic service could best be reformed and made modern through changes to labor relations in the home or whether Chinese and black workers’ alleged predisposition to servitude meant that looking for racialized sources of labor continued to be the best solution for “fixing” the occupation. Examining the start of the Great Migration, the 1917 Immigration Act, and the eventual passage of numerical restrictions on European immigration that the 1924 Immigration Act instituted, this chapter argues that the various exceptions built into immigration laws, which had exempted domestic servants from restrictions since the passage of the 1885 Foran Act, finally gave way to the conclusion that white women could no longer be counted on to do this work.Less
Stymied by the refusal of “new” immigrant women from Eastern and Southern Europe to pursue work as domestic laborers, at the turn of the century middle-class employers reevaluated the fundamental utility of hired labor to the production of domesticity. Chapter 6 brings the book’s different narrative arcs together by engaging public and expert debates about whether domestic service could best be reformed and made modern through changes to labor relations in the home or whether Chinese and black workers’ alleged predisposition to servitude meant that looking for racialized sources of labor continued to be the best solution for “fixing” the occupation. Examining the start of the Great Migration, the 1917 Immigration Act, and the eventual passage of numerical restrictions on European immigration that the 1924 Immigration Act instituted, this chapter argues that the various exceptions built into immigration laws, which had exempted domestic servants from restrictions since the passage of the 1885 Foran Act, finally gave way to the conclusion that white women could no longer be counted on to do this work.
Bridget Hill
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206217
- eISBN:
- 9780191677021
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206217.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
This chapter examines the conditions of the domestic servants employed by Nicholas Blundell, a wealthy gentleman living near Liverpool, England. This analysis is based on the Blundell's journal where ...
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This chapter examines the conditions of the domestic servants employed by Nicholas Blundell, a wealthy gentleman living near Liverpool, England. This analysis is based on the Blundell's journal where he indexed information about his servants over a period of twenty-six years during the 18th century. This chapter investigates whether Blundell household was representative of the wealthy employers of domestic servants during this period. It describes the nature of the Blundell household and the duties and responsibilities of his servants.Less
This chapter examines the conditions of the domestic servants employed by Nicholas Blundell, a wealthy gentleman living near Liverpool, England. This analysis is based on the Blundell's journal where he indexed information about his servants over a period of twenty-six years during the 18th century. This chapter investigates whether Blundell household was representative of the wealthy employers of domestic servants during this period. It describes the nature of the Blundell household and the duties and responsibilities of his servants.
Vanessa H. May
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807834770
- eISBN:
- 9781469603094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807877906_may.5
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter discusses the lecture given by I. M. Rubinow regarding domestic service. Rubinow was a medical doctor and Ph.D. in economics who would later contribute to the intellectual framework of ...
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This chapter discusses the lecture given by I. M. Rubinow regarding domestic service. Rubinow was a medical doctor and Ph.D. in economics who would later contribute to the intellectual framework of New Deal social insurance programs. He gave his lecture as one in a series in a course, “Domestic Administration,” at Columbia University's Teacher's College. During his talk, Rubinow accused middle-class women of mistreating their domestic employees by, among other things, working them too many hours for not enough pay. His take on the issue was not the one anticipated by the New York housewives in his audience, who maybe assumed he would argue the part of the dissatisfied middle-class domestic employer, many of whom complained that household workers were variously lazy, dishonest, drunk, or sexually promiscuous.Less
This chapter discusses the lecture given by I. M. Rubinow regarding domestic service. Rubinow was a medical doctor and Ph.D. in economics who would later contribute to the intellectual framework of New Deal social insurance programs. He gave his lecture as one in a series in a course, “Domestic Administration,” at Columbia University's Teacher's College. During his talk, Rubinow accused middle-class women of mistreating their domestic employees by, among other things, working them too many hours for not enough pay. His take on the issue was not the one anticipated by the New York housewives in his audience, who maybe assumed he would argue the part of the dissatisfied middle-class domestic employer, many of whom complained that household workers were variously lazy, dishonest, drunk, or sexually promiscuous.
