THE INDUSTRIAL DISADVANTAGES OF DOMESTIC SERVICE
No one occupation includes every advantage and no disadvantages. There
must always be a balancing of the pros and cons, and domestic service has
its industrial disadvantages, which are as patent as its advantages, and
like them are independent of the personal relationship existing between
the employer and the employee.
The question was asked of employees, “What reasons can you give why more
women do not choose housework as a regular employment?” The reasons
assigned may be classified as follows:
Pride, social condition, and unwillingness to be called servants 157
Confinement evenings and Sundays 75
More independence in other occupations 60
Too hard and confining 42
Other work pays better 42
Lack of consideration by mistresses 38
Hours too long 38
Do not like housework 19
Do not know how to do housework 12
Can live at home by working in shops 11
Girls are too lazy 8
Health considerations 8
Girls are too restless 6
Too few privileges 6
Hard work, little pay 5
Other occupations easier 4
Different tastes 4
Bad character of some reflects on others 3
Receive no encouragement 3
Too lonely and meals alone 3
Constant change in work 3
Shop work cleaner 2
No chance for promotion 2
Miscellaneous reasons, one each 11
---
Total 562
Some of these and other reasons demand a more detailed explanation.
The first industrial disadvantage is the fact that there is little
or no opportunity for promotion in the service nor are there opening
out from it kindred occupations. An ambitious and capable seamstress
becomes a dressmaker and mistress of a shop, a successful clerk sets up
a small fancy store, the trained nurse by further study develops into
a physician, the teacher becomes the head of a school; but there are
no similar openings in household employments. Success means a slight
increase in wages, possibly an easier place, or service in a more
aristocratic neighborhood, but the differences are only slight ones
of degree, never those of kind. “Once a cook, always a cook” may be
applied in principle to every branch of the service. The only place where
promotion is in any way possible is in hotel service.[258] Those women
who would become the most efficient domestics are the ones who see most
clearly this drawback to the occupation.[259]
The second disadvantage is the paradoxical one that it is possible for
a capable woman to reach in this employment comparative perfection in a
reasonably short time. Table service is a fine art which many waitresses
never learn, but it is easily mastered by one who “mixes it with brains.”
One illustration of this is the superior service given at summer resorts
by college students without special training. The proper care of a
room is understood by few maids, but the comprehension of a few simple
principles enables an intelligent woman soon to become an expert. The
work of a cook involves much more, but because many persons cook for
years without learning how to provide a single palatable and nourishing
dish, it does not follow that the art cannot be readily acquired. This
fact taken in connection with the previous one unconsciously operates to
prevent a large number of ambitious women from becoming domestics.
A third disadvantage is the fact that “housework is never done.” In
no other occupation involving the same amount of intelligent work do
the results seem so literally ephemeral. This indeed is not the true
statement of the case—mistresses are learning slowly that cooking is a
moral and scientific question, that neatness in caring for a room is a
matter of hygiene, and that table service has æsthetic possibilities.
But if it has taken long for the most intelligent part of society to
understand that the results of housework are not transient, but as
far-reaching in their effects as are the products of any other form of
labor, it cannot be deemed strange that domestics as a class and those in
other occupations complain “in housework there’s nothing to show for your
work.”
A fourth disadvantage is the lack of organization in domestic work. The
verdict from the standpoint of the statistician has been quoted.[260] A
domestic employee sums up the question from her point of view when she
says, “Most women like to follow one particular branch of industry, such
as cooking, or chamber work, or laundry work, because it enables one to
be thorough and experienced; but when these are combined, as a general
thing the work is hard and never done.”
A fifth disadvantage is the irregularity of working hours. This is a
most serious one, since the question is complicated not only by the
irregularity that exists in every family, but also by the varying customs
in different families. The actual working hours of a general servant may
vary from one instance of five hours in Kansas to another of eighteen
hours in Georgia. They sometimes vary in the same city from seven to
seventeen hours. It is a difficult matter to ascertain with the utmost
definiteness, but a careful examination of all statements made seems to
show that the actual working hours are ten in the case of thirty-eight
per cent of women employees, thirty-seven per cent averaging more than
ten hours, and twenty-five per cent less than this. The working hours
for men average somewhat longer than the hours for women, while there
are slight differences in the various classes of servants; but they are
of too indefinite a character to be specially noted. Table XIX will
illustrate these points.
TABLE XIX
ACTUAL DAILY WORKING HOURS
========================+=================================+========+=====
| NUMBER WORKING | |
+-----+-----+-----+-------+-------+ Not |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | Less | More |answered|Total
OCCUPATION |hours|hours|hours|than 10|than 12| |
| | | | hours | hours | |
------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-------+-------+--------+-----
WOMEN | | | | | | |
General servants | 149 | 28 | 91 | 142 | 45 | 183 | 638
Second girls | 29 | 6 | 26 | 40 | 21 | 52 | 174
Cooks and laundresses | 25 | 7 | 21 | 21 | 26 | 42 | 142
Cooks | 58 | 9 | 41 | 45 | 43 | 92 | 288
Laundresses | 94 | 11 | 16 | 36 | 3 | 91 | 251
Chambermaids and | | | | | | |
waitresses | 34 | 4 | 20 | 21 | 20 | 36 | 135
Chambermaids | 23 | 3 | 10 | 17 | 6 | 37 | 96
Waitresses | 46 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 39 | 107
Nurses | 25 | 8 | 25 | 8 | 19 | 45 | 130
Seamstresses | 57 | 2 | 4 | 26 | | 18 | 107
Housekeepers | | | | 1 | | 4 | 5
------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-------+-------+--------+-----
Total | 540 | 81 | 256 | 364 | 193 | 639 |2073
------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-------+-------+--------+-----
MEN | | | | | | |
Butlers | 11 | | 10 | 5 | 7 | 13 | 46
Coachmen and gardeners| 31 | 8 | 26 | 20 | 10 | 35 | 130
Coachmen | 27 | 4 | 18 | 5 | 10 | 48 | 112
Gardeners | 52 | 6 | 12 | 23 | 8 | 25 | 126
Choremen | 7 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 3 | 17 | 41
Cooks | 7 | | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 17
------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-------+-------+--------+-----
Total | 135 | 19 | 71 | 67 | 39 | 141 | 472
========================+=====+=====+=====+=======+=======+========+=====
========================+=================================
| PER CENT WORKING
+-----+-----+-----+-------+-------
| 10 | 11 | 12 | Less | More
OCCUPATION |hours|hours|hours|than 10|than 12
| | | | hours | hours
------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-------+-------
WOMEN | | | | |
General servants |32.75| 6.15|20.00| 31.21 | 9.89
Second girls |23.77| 4.92|21.31| 32.79 | 17.21
Cooks and laundresses |25.00| 7.00|21.00| 21.00 | 26.00
Cooks |29.59| 4.59|20.92| 22.97 | 21.94
Laundresses |58.75| 6.88|10.00| 22.50 | 1.87
Chambermaids and | | | | |
waitresses |34.34| 4.04|20.20| 21.21 | 20.20
Chambermaids |38.98| 5.09|16.95| 28.81 | 10.17
Waitresses |67.65| 4.41| 2.94| 10.29 | 14.71
Nurses |29.41| 9.41|29.41| 9.41 | 22.35
Seamstresses |64.04| 2.25| 4.50| 29.21 |
Housekeepers | | | | |
------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-------+-------
Total |37.66| 5.65|17.86| 25.38 | 13.45
------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-------+-------
MEN | | | | |
Butlers |33.34| |30.30| 15.15 | 21.21
Coachmen and gardeners|32.63| 8.42|27.37| 21.05 | 10.53
Coachmen |42.19| 6.25|28.13| 7.81 | 15.62
Gardeners |51.49| 5.94|11.88| 22.27 | 7.92
Choremen |29.17| 4.17| 8.33| 45.83 | 12.50
Cooks |50.00| |21.43| 21.43 | 7.14
------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-------+-------
Total |40.79| 5.74|21.45| 20.24 | 11.78
========================+=====+=====+=====+=======+=======
=========================+=======+=======
PER CENT WORKING | WOMEN | MEN
-------------------------+-------+-------
Ten hours | 37.66 | 40.79
Less than ten hours | 25.88 | 20.24
More than ten hours | 86.96 | 38.97
=========================+=======+=======
Many of these differences are inherent in the composition of the family,
and can never be removed; many of them are accidental and their number
could be lessened were employers so inclined; many of them grow out
of necessarily differing standards of living. This is seen where one
family of ten employs one general servant and another family of ten
employs eleven servants; one family of four employs nine servants, while
seventy-eight other families of the same size each employ only one
servant; one family of eight has sixteen servants, while each one of
eight other families consisting of eight persons employs one servant;
twenty-three families numbering seven each have one general servant,
while another family of seven has thirteen employees; in another
instance, three employees serve a family of one. These contrasts could
be multiplied indefinitely. They simply indicate in one way the hopeless
confusion that must exist at present in the matter of hours of service
required. The irregularities in even a well-regulated family are always
great. Many of these are apparently necessary, and the employee must
expect to meet them—they are often not so great as those that perplex
the mistress of the house in her share of the household duties, but
the fact cannot be ignored that they exist and have weight. The one
afternoon each week with generally one or more evenings after work is
done is not sufficient compensation.[261] It is the irregularity in the
distribution of working time rather than the amount of time demanded
that causes dissatisfaction on the part of employees. No complaint is
more often made than this, and the results of the investigation seem to
justify the complaint. To a young woman therefore seeking employment
the question of working hours assumes the aspect of a lottery—she may
draw a prize of seven working hours or she may draw a blank of fourteen
working hours; she cannot be blamed for making definite inquiries of a
prospective employer regarding the size of the family and the number of
other servants employed.
A sixth disadvantage closely connected with the preceding is the matter
of free time evenings and Sundays. This objection to housework is
frequently made;[262] it is one that can never be wholly obviated, since
the household machinery cannot stop at six o’clock and must be kept in
order seven days in the week, but were society so inclined the objection
could be lessened.
A seventh difficulty is presented to the American born girl when she
realizes that she must come into competition with the foreign born and
colored element.[263] Although much of this feeling is undoubtedly
unreasonable, it is not peculiar to domestic service. The fact must be
accepted, with or without excuse for it.
Another disadvantage that weighs with many is the feeling that in other
occupations there is more personal independence. This includes not only
the matter of time evenings and Sundays, which they can seldom call
unconditionally their own, but there is a dislike of interference on
the part of the employer, either with their work or with their personal
habits and tastes. This interference is often hard to bear when the
employer is an experienced housekeeper—it is intolerable in the case of
an inexperienced one. The “boss” carpenter who himself knew nothing about
the carpenter’s trade would soon have all his workmen arrayed against
him; in every occupation an employee is unwilling to be directed except
by his superior in knowledge and ability.[264] It seems unreasonable
to expect domestic service to be an exception to this universal rule.
But even experienced housekeepers often do not realize how difficult it
is for one person to work in the harness of another, and by insisting
on having work done in their own way, even by competent servants, they
sometimes unconsciously hinder the accomplishment of their own ends.[265]
There is also connected with this the preference for serving a company or
a corporation rather than a private individual. It is hard to explain
this feeling except on general grounds of prejudice, but the belief
undoubtedly exists that there is more personal independence connected
with work in a large establishment than there in serving an individual.
There is often a similar feeling of independence in working in families
employing a large number of servants, or in those occupying a high
station in life.[266]
The industrial disadvantages of the occupation are best summed up by a
young factory operative who was for a time in domestic service. In answer
to the question, “Why do girls dislike domestic service?” she writes:
“In the first place, I don’t like the idea of only one evening
a week and every other Sunday. I like to feel that I have just
so many hours’ work to do and do them, and come home and dress
up and go out or sit down and sew if I feel like it, and when
a girl is in service she has very little time for herself,
she is a servant. In the second place, a shop or factory girl
knows just what she has to do and can go ahead and do it. I
also think going out makes a girl stupid in time. She gets out
of style, so to speak. She never reads and does not know what
is going on in the world. I don’t mean to say they all get
stupid, but it makes gossips of girls that if they worked in
shops or factories would be smart girls. Then I think shop or
factory girls make the best wives. Now I don’t mean all, but
the biggest part of them, and the cleanest housekeepers. The
domestic after she gets married gets careless. She don’t take
the pride in her home that the shop-girl does. She has lived
in such fine houses that her small tenement has no beauty for
her after the first glow of married life is over. She don’t
try either to make her home attractive or herself, and gets
discouraged, and is apt to make a man disheartened with her,
and then I think she is extravagant. She has so much to do
with before she is married and so little to do with after she
don’t know how to manage. She can’t have tenderloin steak for
her breakfast and rump roast for her dinner, and pay the rent
and all other bills out of $12 a week—and that is the average
man’s pay, the kind of man we girls that work for a living
get. Of course I don’t mean to say the domestics don’t have a
good time, they do; some of them have lovely places and lay up
money, but after all, what is life if a body is always trying
to see just how much money he or she can save?”
The industrial disadvantages of the occupation certainly are many,
including as they do the lack of all opportunity for promotion, the great
amount of mere mechanical repetition involved, the lack of organization
in the service, irregularity in working hours, the limitation of free
time evenings and Sundays, competition with the foreign born and the
negro element that seems objectionable to the American born, and the
interference with work often by those less skilled than the workers
themselves. The industrial disadvantages, however, form but one class
of the two that weigh most seriously against the occupation. The social
disadvantages will be discussed in the following chapter.