Jane Austen's World explores what it was like to be a maid. To quote:
As with the scullery maid, the maid of all work was generally a very young girl. She could also be a mature woman so down on her luck that the only other choices open to her were life on the streets or finding shelter in a work house, which was to be avoided at all costs. In Mansfield Park Fanny’s family in Portsmouth is described as being poor, yet even they were able to hire a maid of all work, so you can just imagine what the work conditions were like for these poor women, who literally did everything from cooking, sweeping the floors, hauling water, carrying out slops, looking after the pets and children, laundering, changing the beds, and serving the family at mealtimes. Maids of all work were the first to rise and the last to go to bed. If the house was small, they were lucky to receive a pallet to sleep near the fire in the kitchen. As for time off to rest and recuperate, a maid of all work was at the mercy of her employer.Share
7 comments:
It was clearly hard labor for a young girl but is not much different than the daily list of chores for any woman/mother today.
That is so true, Ingrid, especially the part about being the first to rise and the last to go to bed!
I don't know about that, Ingrid. A maid might have to care for many more children.
+JMJ+
And at least a housewife would have the joy of caring for her own children, who give her love in return. A maid might just be a faceless automaton to her employers.
Of course, I know some mothers of very large families who feel like automatons sometimes! ;-) Of course, being a maid is a far cry from being the mistress of your own house. I agree with Ingrid, though, in that what many mothers of families now do on their own is comparable to servant's work of the past. Especially women who have jobs, either inside or outside the home, and still must do all the cooking, laundry, cleaning. The life of the little maid in Regency England seems much less complicated!
The last phrase of the paragraph sounds "negative"--"As for time off to rest and recuperate, a maid of all work was at the mercy of her employer." However, I would guess that most families were just people like us who would be sensitive to the maid's needs for rest. As for just being lucky to get a pallet near the fire; well, I'm guessing that if they were in a situation to begin with, they likely were lucky to get a pallet by the fire when they were living at home with their own families.
I'm not trying to say it wasn't a hard life, but sometimes it seems we either idealize or demonize the past, neither of which capture the reality.
Good points, Lindsay. And for many poor girls getting a job as a maid was a huge step up in the world.
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