THE SERVANT PROBLEM AND SOME SOLUTIONS OF IT
I
"Servants? We haven't a single-handed cook or a house-parlourmaid on
our books, madam."
This, in many cases, is the reply of the registry office to-day, and
as time goes on the shortage of domestic workers will become more and
more acute. Of highly-paid upper servants, with under-servants to
wait upon them, there is no lack, for the supply of persons wishing
to fill the few "plum" posts in any profession is always adequate;
but as there is a lack of under-servants, even the very rich find it
difficult to secure a satisfactory household; while the mistress who
needs a house-parlourmaid, a single-handed cook, a "general," or even
a single-handed house- or parlourmaid finds it almost impossible to
induce a suitable girl to accept her situation.
Why should this be?
"The war," says every one. "All the young women are busy conducting
tramcars, selling bacon, and punching railway tickets."
But why are all the young women anxious to be anything but domestic
servants?
As a matter of fact this dislike to service has not been brought about
by the war; it has been growing steadily for many years, and to a great
extent employers have only themselves to thank for a state of affairs
which they so bitterly deplore.
[Illustration:
_PLATE II_
THE DAVIS "ADAM" GAS FIRE IN AN ADAM STYLE MANTEL]
The Ignorant Employer.
What sane person would undertake the management of a business knowing
nothing of the conduct of it? Yet this is what young women of the
moneyed classes have done ever since it became the fashion to despise
domesticity, to imagine that housekeeping was a pursuit fit only for
women too stupid to do anything else. The girl marries: to her, cookery
and household work are deep, dark mysteries. How do you clean silver?
How long does it take to turn out a bedroom? Do you allow 2 lbs. or
12 lbs. of margarine per week for a household of six persons? What is
dripping? The cook says soup cannot be made without soup meat. Can't
it? And what is soup meat? Imagine the annoyance of working under the
control of such an employer!
Honest, competent servants become disheartened, the incompetent remain
incompetent, while the ignorance of the mistress makes the temptation
to be dishonest well-nigh irresistible. It is the ignorance of the
mistress also that has enabled the perquisite and commission system
(polite names for theft) to flourish, and which make it possible for
tradesmen to employ men at low wages on the tacit understanding that a
high wage may be gained by fleecing the customer.
[Illustration:
_PLATE III_
AN "ADAM" DESIGN GAS DOG GRATE PLACED IN A FINE OLD FIRE-PLACE IN A
LARGE HALL
Note also the attractive gas candle brackets. (Richmond)]
No Chance for the Incompetent Servant.
Again, had the servant-employers of this country a proper knowledge
of their duties, the incompetent servant would have little chance to
exist. She would have been taught her work, and if she would not do it,
have been dismissed.
But nine times out of ten the mistress does not know how to teach, and
is so dependent on her servants that she must keep anyone rather than
be left servantless.
The result of our genteel dislike of "menial" duties has not only
encouraged dishonesty and incompetence in our servants, it has actually
lessened the supply. The mistress who has never cleaned a room or
cooked a dinner cannot realise the difficulties of either task. Hence
it is that because domestic work generally has been done by paid
servants, we have made but little effort to plan and furnish our houses
in a labour-saving fashion. We have also failed to move with the times,
and to realise that no matter if we approve or disapprove, young girls
now demand more variety and more freedom in their lives than was
formerly the case.
Wanted! a New Race of Mistresses.
A race of competent, sympathetic mistresses might have made domestic
service one of the most sought-after of the professions open to the
average woman. They might have eliminated practically all the hard
and dirty work of the house, they might have organised regular hours
for exercise and recreation, and by their own example shown what war
is now teaching us--the incalculable value to the nation of the good
housekeeper. In their scorn of domestic duties Englishwomen have
forgotten that the sole duty of the housewife is not to know the price
of mutton: it is her duty, and that of those who work with her, to
bring up a race of decently behaved, clean, well-fed people, and to
make of her home a place of peace and goodwill, a centre from which
radiates a right influence.
Is this the work for the woman too stupid for aught else? or is it the
work of a true patriot?
It is often said that the English govern their Government, and there is
truth in the statement. The Press keeps its finger on the public pulse:
when that shows signs of excitement, the Press acts, and between them,
Public and Press set Parliament moving.
Domestic Training for all Girls.
Possibly, in time, the serious lack of domestic labour will excite the
Public and the Press to such a pitch that the Government will realise
that every girl, no matter of what class, should be taught how to cook
and to clean and to wash, tend and feed a young child, and not only be
taught how to do these things, but impressed with the idea that in so
doing she is as surely performing her duty to her country as are the
soldier, sailor, doctor, scientist, or merchant.
But the fact that you teach girls these things will not cause them to
become servants, you object.
I am by no means sure that you are right. When all girls have been
through a course of domestic training, and when they have been
impressed with the national importance of such work, they will regard
it from a point of view different from that which now obtains.
The girl who becomes the employer will know what she is asking of her
employée; she will realise that to labour indoors from 6.30 or 7 to 10
or 10.30 five days a week is not attractive to a young girl. The work
may not be continuous: there will be half-hours of rest and talk with
the other maids; but the fact remains that the servant is on duty and
liable to be called upon at any time during those hours.
The mistress, who has been a worker, will also realise how hard and
disagreeable are some of the tasks required of the servant in a
labour-making home.
On the other hand, the servant will know that she cannot take advantage
of the ignorance of her employer and that her employer is not demanding
of her work which she herself regards as derogatory. The maid, too,
will start knowing her work: she will not have to pick it up as best
she can, often from persons knowing little more than herself. The life
of many young servants is made almost unendurable because they have to
struggle along as best they may, scolded by mistress and upper-servant
alike for not knowing what they have had no opportunity to learn. A
child in a fairly well-to-do working home, whose mother has been a
servant, goes out to service with some knowledge of her work, but as
a rule the conditions in cottages and town workers' dwellings are so
utterly different from those in the homes of the well-to-do that the
young girl can scarcely be blamed when she breaks and spoils and makes
more dust and muddle than she clears away.
Domestic Training will improve the Physique of the Coming Generation.
A three or four months' course of intelligent domestic training
would do much, not only to solve the servant problem, but to improve
the physique of the coming generation, for it is sheer ignorance
of domesticity which accounts for a high percentage of the infant
mortality which is a disgrace to this country. And this ignorance of
the importance of cleanliness, sanitation, etc., is not confined to
the poorer classes. Fashions filter downwards, and when the educated
women of the upper classes show that they consider household work
beneath their attention, why should they think it strange when they
find the same opinion expressed by the working-girl?
Ignorance of the national value of "menial work" is one reason for
the unpopularity of domestic service.
This attitude is not confined to the uneducated--only to the
unthinking.
[Illustration:
PLATE IV
THIS ILLUSTRATION SHOWS HOW MODERN COAL GRATES IN BEDROOMS CAN BE
FITTED WITH GAS FIRES WITHOUT MAKING STRUCTURAL ALTERATIONS.
This type of gas fire can be fitted in almost any shape or size of coal
grates; its initial cost, as well as cost of fitting, is extremely low.
(Fletcher Russell)]
II
Menial Work.
The wide dislike of menial work which exists was brought before me
vividly a short time ago.
A secretary was advertised for, an educated, quick, methodical
worker--good typist and shorthandist. The lady who needed the secretary
almost required one to deal with the letters she received in reply to
her advertisement.[1]
A holiday nursery governess was advertised for: again with the same
result. Women with every qualification were anxious--desperately
anxious--to obtain the post. These educated women sent stamped
envelopes for a reply and offered to come long distances to secure an
interview.
A cook at £30 a year (single-handed) was advertised for over and over
again. Registry offices were haunted, friends worried, for tidings
of cooks. No cooks were forthcoming. Here was a situation where the
two maids had a roomy comfortable bedroom and their own bathroom, a
sitting-room with a gas fire and every labour-saving apparatus to make
the work easy.
These servants were offered not less than 10s. a week wages, as much
good food as they could eat, clean, sanitary quarters, with comfortable
beds and hot baths galore. Their washing was paid, an off-day, from
3.30 to 10, once a week, and the same on alternate Sundays, and two
weeks' holiday (on full pay) granted, in addition to as many other
outings as could be arranged.
Had suitable applicants appeared and demanded £30 or £34 a year, they
would have obtained those wages.
[Illustration:
PLATE V
A LONDON DINING-ROOM SHOWING DRAWING-ROOM BEYOND
This picture shows how a gas fire may be fixed in an antique grate
without disturbing the old fire-place. When alight the effect is of
red-hot coke.]
Too many Governesses, Secretaries, and Companions in Normal Times.
And yet there is a glut of women who wish to become governesses,
secretaries, companions, and shop-assistants, in spite of the fact that
such work is not well paid, that it is uncertain, and that those girls
who must take lodgings or "live in" are generally badly housed and
badly fed. Except in a few shops, girls living "in" live very roughly.
Nurses in the generality of nursing-homes do the same, and women
workers who earn under 30s. a week and live in a bed-sitting-room in
a lodging-house are in no better case, though the latter do have the
luxury of a room to themselves. In many houses, however, this luxury
could be granted to the servants.
The life of a servant in a good situation is healthy; she can
enjoy cleanliness, good food, and warmth, she can take her pick of
situations, and leave one which is undesirable, knowing full well that
she can obtain another for the asking. A girl earning good wages in
service can save, and she is not dogged by the terror of being suddenly
thrown out of employment and finding herself penniless and unable to
obtain another post.
So much for the advantages of domestic service as a profession. What
are its drawbacks?
Lack of freedom and the fact that the profession of a servant is not
considered genteel! The girl who adopts it does not rank as a "young
lady."
Service is not a Genteel Profession!
Is it not time that we ceased to cherish such vulgar ideas?
War, tragic and terrible, is bringing home to us the fact that we
should honour the women who can and will work, and despise those who
exist merely as parasites on the labour of their fellow-beings.
The educated woman who desires to earn her living has a great chance
before her. Let her do for the domestic worker what an earlier
generation of women did for the sick-nurse. As domestic workers,
educated women will be of incalculable value to the nation, and they
can secure for themselves well-paid, healthy work under reformed
conditions.
Domestic Training Colleges.
To bring about this change, first of all we need to establish domestic
training colleges, run on somewhat the same lines as the Norland
Nurses' Institute, where girls of good education may learn their work
and obtain certificates and character sheets. These institutions should
provide accommodation for members on holiday or when changing their
situations. They should also demand for their members a fixed scale of
wages, a reasonable standard of food and accommodation, and free time.
The workers should wear the uniform of the institution. Well-trained
girls could demand high wages, and employers could afford to give them
to conscientious, capable workers, who would neither break nor spoil
nor waste, and who would disdain to practise the small dishonesties by
which the servant often augments her wages.
But if the educated woman worker is ready to do her part in the scheme,
her prospective employer must realise that she, too, has a duty to
perform. It rests with her so to arrange the work of her household that
the positions she has to offer shall appear desirable to the class of
woman she desires to employ.
What the Servant Dislikes.
To sum up the situation, the scarcity of domestic servants is accounted
for by the dislike of girls who have to earn a living for a life which
entails long hours, little freedom, and which carries with it something
of social stigma.
The shop-girl, the clerk, the tea-room waitress are "_young ladies_."
They are known as Miss Jones or Miss Smith. The servant is a servant,
a "slavey," a "skivvy," a "Mary Jane." A young man of the superior
working class prefers to walk out with a young lady, and the servant
knows this and resents it. Even if a girl goes into a factory, she may
work harder than the servant and in many cases under less pleasant
conditions, but she is free in the evening, on Saturday afternoon,
and on Sunday, and she lives amongst her equals. She does not inhabit
"servants' bedrooms," and eat "kitchen butter," and drink "kitchen
tea." The tea that she does drink may be inferior, but at all events it
is as good as that consumed by other members of her world.
And all these things matter, though the average employer likes to
believe that they do not.
To Popularise Domestic Service.
So to make domestic service popular we must make it fashionable. It
should be as fashionable to be a domestic servant as to become a
hospital nurse.
Alter the conditions of domestic service until the profession of
domestic worker attracts the educated woman, and the problem is solved.
"Go into Service! Not I!"
That is what young girls say.
"I don't know what to do, I cannot get servants."
That is what the employer says.
What is she doing to make domestic service an attractive profession
to the young girl?
III
Study the psychology of the question, find out what it is young women
want of life. Be progressive. Do not say, "Because it was, it ever
shall be." Thank God, things do not stay as they were, or we might
still be working little children eighteen hours a day in factories,
starving and whipping lunatics, and burning witches.
Having realised that it is the human attitude which is of first
importance, then let us go on to see by what means we can lighten the
work of our households so that we may make service attractive.
We can solve the domestic problem--
1.--By becoming entirely, or partly, our own servants.
2.--By employing outside workers, who should be trained, uniformed,
and paid at a fixed rate per hour.
3.--By changing the conditions until domestic service becomes as
attractive to the worker as any other profession open to the woman
of average ability and education.
Other changes can be made: indeed, it is certain that sooner or later
they must be made unless we are to go servantless. When the necessary
alteration of mental attitude towards the subject is achieved, the next
thing to be done is to call to our aid all the labour-saving devices
which are available, for it is by making full use of them that we can
eliminate the hard and disagreeable work from houses and make the
profession of a domestic worker attractive to an educated woman.
In the industrial world it is now realised that to obtain the best
results the worker must be saved all unnecessary fatigue, and that the
mental atmosphere in which he works must be as free from strain and
anxiety as possible, for it is found that the labour of an over-tired
worker becomes practically worthless.
It is time we applied modern methods to the working of our households,
in which they are needed as much as in the office or the factory.
"They build these 'ouses," said Ann, "as though girls wasn't 'uman
beings....
"It's 'ouses like this wears girls out."
KIPPS.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] This incident occurred in the early part of 1915.