A maid, house maid, or maidservant is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era, domestic service was the second-largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids are now typically only found in the wealthiest households. In other parts of the world (mainly within the continent of Asia), maids remain common in urban middle-class households.
Details[]
Maids perform typical domestic chores such as laundry, ironing, cleaning the house, grocery shopping, cooking, and caring for household pets. They may also take care of children, although there are more specific occupations for this, such as nanny. In some poor countries, maids take care of the elderly and people with disabilities. Many maids are required by their employers to wear a uniform.
Maids were once part of an elaborate hierarchy in great houses, where the retinue of servants stretched up to the housekeeper and butler, responsible for female and male employees respectively. It was the best and most common way that women could earn money, especially lower class women. Domestic workers, particularly those low in the hierarchy, such as maids and footmen were expected to remain unmarried while in service. They had their own section of rooms in the house, though they were far away from the other rooms and weren’t anywhere near as nice as the rest of the house.
Some households employed maids-of-all-work as young as twelve in the 19th century in England and they often worked from five in the morning until late in the evening on a wage of £6 to £9 per year.[9] They had no free time and typically only had one or two days off in a month.[10]
In Victorian England, all middle-class families would have "help", but for most small households, this would be only one employee, the maid of all work, often known colloquially as "the girl".
Legislation in many countries makes certain living conditions, working hours, or minimum wage a requirement of domestic service. Nonetheless, the work of a maid has always been hard, involving a full day, and extensive duties. Maids would be familiar with hard work and typically worked long hours in a week.
Types of maids[]
- Lady's maid - a senior servant who reported directly to the lady of the house, but ranked beneath the housekeeper, and accompanied her lady on travel. She took care of her mistress's clothes and hair, and sometimes served as confidante.
- Nursery maid - an "upstairs maid", but one who worked in the children's nursery, maintaining fires, cleanliness, and good order. Reported to the nanny rather than the housekeeper. The nursemaid would often stay with one family for years or as long as their services were needed.
- Kitchen maid - a "below stairs" maid who reported to the cook, and assisted in running the kitchens.
- Types of kitchen maids
- Head kitchen maid - where multiple kitchen maids were employed, the "head kitchen maid" was effectively a deputy to the cook, engaged largely in the plainer and simpler cooking (sometimes cooking the servants' meals).
- Under kitchen maid - where multiple kitchen maids were employed, these were the staff who prepared vegetables, peeled potatoes, and assisted in presentation of finished cooking for serving.
- Types of kitchen maids
- House maid - a generic term for maids whose function was chiefly "above stairs", and were usually a little older, and better paid. Where a household included multiple housemaids
- Types of house maids:
- Head house-maid - the senior house maid, reporting to the housekeeper. (Also called "house parlour maid" in an establishment with only one or two upstairs maids).
- Under house parlour maid - the general deputy to the house parlour maid in a small establishment that had only two upstairs maids.
- Parlour maid - they cleaned and tidied reception rooms and living areas by morning, and often served refreshments at afternoon tea, and sometimes also dinner. They tidied studies and libraries, and (with footmen) answered bells calling for service.[18]
- Chamber maid - they cleaned and maintained the bedrooms, ensured fires were lit in fireplaces, and supplied hot water.
- Laundry maid - they maintained bedding and towels. They also washed, dried, and ironed clothes for the whole household, including the servants.
- Types of house maids:
- Still room maid - a junior maid employed in the still room; as the work involved the supply of alcohol, cosmetics, medicines, and cooking ingredients across all departments of the house, the still room maids were part of the "between staff", jointly answerable to all three department heads.
- Scullery maid - technically the lowest grade of "below stairs" maid, reporting to the cook, the scullery maids were responsible for washing cutlery, crockery, and glassware, and scrubbing kitchen floors, as well as monitoring ovens while kitchen maids ate their own supper. It's not clear why they aren't considered a sub-type of kitchen maid.
- Between maid - sometimes known as a "tweeny": roughly equivalent in status to scullery maids, and often paid less, between maids in a large household waited on the senior servants (butler, housekeeper, and cook) and were therefore answerable to all three department heads, often leading to friction in their employment.
- Maids-of-all-work or Skivvy - the sole household maid and often the only staff. It is possible the word "skivvy" originates from the Italian for slave ("schiavo"—"owned person").
Origin of word[]
Maid in Middle English meant an unmarried woman, especially a young one, or specifically a virgin. These meanings lived on in English until recent times (and are still familiar from literature and folk music), alongside the sense of the word as a type of servant.
