Chapter VIII 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
| Occupation | Number working | Not answered | Total | Per cent working | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 hours | 11 hours | 12 hours | Less than 10 hours | More than 12 hours | 10 hours | 11 hours | 12 hours | Less than 10 hours | More than 12 hours | |||
| Women | ||||||||||||
| General servants | 149 | 28 | 91 | 142 | 45 | 183 | 638 | 32.75 | 6.15 | 20.00 | 31.21 | 9.89 |
| Second girls | 29 | 6 | 26 | 40 | 21 | 52 | 174 | 23.77 | 4.92 | 21.31 | 32.79 | 17.21 |
| Cooks and laundresses | 25 | 7 | 21 | 21 | 26 | 42 | 142 | 25.00 | 7.00 | 21.00 | 21.00 | 26.00 |
| Cooks | 58 | 9 | 41 | 45 | 43 | 92 | 288 | 29.59 | 4.59 | 20.92 | 22.97 | 21.94 |
| Laundresses | 94 | 11 | 16 | 36 | 3 | 91 | 251 | 58.75 | 6.88 | 10.00 | 22.50 | 1.87 |
| Chambermaids and waitresses | 34 | 4 | 20 | 21 | 20 | 36 | 135 | 34.34 | 4.04 | 20.20 | 21.21 | 20.20 |
| Chambermaids | 23 | 3 | 10 | 17 | 6 | 37 | 96 | 38.98 | 5.09 | 16.95 | 28.81 | 10.17 |
| Waitresses | 46 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 39 | 107 | 67.65 | 4.41 | 2.94 | 10.29 | 14.71 |
| Nurses | 25 | 8 | 25 | 8 | 19 | 45 | 130 | 29.41 | 9.41 | 29.41 | 9.41 | 22.35 |
| Seamstresses | 57 | 2 | 4 | 26 | 18 | 107 | 64.04 | 2.25 | 4.50 | 29.21 | ||
| Housekeepers | 1 | 4 | 5 | |||||||||
| Total | 540 | 81 | 256 | 364 | 193 | 639 | 2073 | 37.66 | 5.65 | 17.86 | 25.38 | 13.45 |
| Men | ||||||||||||
| Butlers | 11 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 13 | 46 | 33.34 | 30.30 | 15.15 | 21.21 | ||
| Coachmen and gardeners | 31 | 8 | 26 | 20 | 10 | 35 | 130 | 32.63 | 8.42 | 27.37 | 21.05 | 10.53 |
| Coachmen | 27 | 4 | 18 | 5 | 10 | 48 | 112 | 42.19 | 6.25 | 28.13 | 7.81 | 15.62 |
| Gardeners | 52 | 6 | 12 | 23 | 8 | 25 | 126 | 51.49 | 5.94 | 11.88 | 22.27 | 7.92 |
| Choremen | 7 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 3 | 17 | 41 | 29.17 | 4.17 | 8.33 | 45.83 | 12.50 |
| Cooks | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 17 | 50.00 | 21.43 | 21.43 | 7.14 | ||
| Total | 135 | 19 | 71 | 67 | 39 | 141 | 472 | 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.