Duties of a Governess

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 194, 14 May 1936, Page 11

Duties of a Governess

Sir, —Is it possible, please, to inform me what the position and duties of a governess should be in this country? I mean a governess, not a nursery governess, one who teaches t-hildren from the ages of 8 to 15 years, all the usual subjects, French, Latin and music. I thought that I was a governess, yet it seems some employers wish to make a menial factotum of me. Besides teaching the children, a governess takes tlie pupils out for a walk daily as a rule, probably makes their beds, gives them, or supervises, their baths and toilet, and sees them to l>ed. A governess in New Zealand also makes her m bed, tidies and cleans her own room, does her owu washing and ironing. On the top of all this employers seem to think they have a right to make a menial of a governess by giving her other rooms to clean out, and asking her t<> help with all the washing-np and no end of other tasks, also to mend ■‘he pupils' clothes, mend tho house linen, and even to make clothes and knit pullovers, la this right? Teaching is a profession, and. no employer has a right to expect maid.-' work and dressmaking to be done as well. If women cannot afford, or are uot able to keep maids, then they have no right to engage a governess. 1 have been teaching in private residences for 26 years, nearly nine of these years in New Zealand. Had my whole teaching career been here in the way we are imposed upon at present, it would not have lasted so long. In England, not in a single case was I asked to do any housework. Aly lied and my room were alway-' done for me, my washing and ironing also. The only sewing I did was mending my pupils’ socks or stockings in a few instances. Governesses are always willing to help in times of sickness or any particular busy time in the home, and do not mind a little housework and sewing within reason, though not the appalling amount of work which is imposed upon them at the present day. After all we are but human, and cannot hold up to such a strain. The salaries, too, are quite inadequate, maids and cooks are receiving far more, and we governesses have to pay our fares from our positions home and back three times in a year, also about three months of the year to provide for ourselves, unless some of us arc lucky in having generous refatioxis who will board us gratis.—l am, etc., GOVERNESS. Napier, Aiay 11.