DOMESTIC SERVANTS

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11665, 1 November 1923, Page 6

DOMESTIC SERVANTS

CAUSES OF SHORTAGE CONTEMPTUOUS ATTITUDE OF PUBLIC HARMFUL. “CONSTANT CARICATURE.” Bv Telegraph—Press Assn.— Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Assoeint’.oii LONDON, October 30. Tho Domestic Service Committee sot up by the Minister of Labour, ill its report just published, states that the payment of unemployment benefits to women had really little to do with tlie shortage of domestic workers. Tho shortage was being exploited by many employment registries, where bylaws regulating their methods do not really exist. The. intimate relationship between domestic servants and their employers was the crux of both the happiness and unhappiness of domestic service. A maid servant’s place of business was aiso her home. In cases where employers recognised this fact, and treated the maid a-s a member of the household, an atmosphere of mutual affection, loyalty, and consideration was engendered, making happiness inevitable. “LOOKED DOWN UPON.” Maids who had given evidence agreed that it was not the employers so much as their own friends and relatives who looked down upon domestic service. But the pnblio was not altogether free from blame. The constant caricaturing of maid servants as dirty, harassed, and impertinent, and the use of contemptuous terms, such as ‘‘akivey” and “slavey,” were significant. The committee earnestly' hopes that tho Press, dramatists, and humorists will realise that they often, probably unintentionally, inflict pain and increase the difficulties of the situation, which is admittedly causing widespread inconvenience and hardship.