LURING GIRLS TO HOUSEWORK

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 209, 3 September 1919, Page 12

LURING GIRLS TO HOUSEWORK

There are three reasons why English girls fight shy of domestic service. Loss of social status, long hours of duty, and lack of companionship.

These are the findings of one of the numerous committees which, on behalf of the Government, are trying to find a solution of the servant problem.

"The fact cannot be denied," says the report, "that •domestic workers arc regarded by other workers as belonging to a lower social status. The distinc. tive dress they are required to wear makes them as a class apart, the cap being generally resented.

"It is sometimes stated that the differentiation in the quality of the food for the dining room and that for the servants' hall or kitchen is another class distinction which leads to a spirit of bitterness. Tlie customs of addressing domestic workers by their Christian name or surname is one of tho causes of the superior attitude adopted by other workers recruited from the same or even from a lower social status.

■'Further, the attitude adopted by the Press and the stage is usually an unfortunate one, as servants are frequently represented an comic or flippant cnaracters, and arc held up to ridicule."

An advisory committee of the Ministry of Labour has laid down the first oflicial minimum wage scale for domestic servants. It ranges from £22 a year for a housemaid of IS years or more up to £30 for a cook or housekeeper, in addition to board and washing. Hours of leisure are fixed at two hours daily, a half-holiday every week, part time on Sundays, and two weeks' holiday each year with wages.