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History 3 - The Stories of Those Who Serve The Homemakers (Discussion…

- - - - Getting slightly more modern with our time period here, Latin America has had significant problems in protecting domestic labor rights in its countries. The ILO (International Labor Organization), notes that more than 18 million domestic workers are employed in the region, with almost 80% percent of them being subjected to informalities in their labor (i.e no official pay is decided upon and conditions for them are often very squalid). Majority of these people (about 93% in fact) are women and it's often difficult to get any change implemented because society often accepts that this is the way it needs to be as it is the way it has been for centuries.
    - - Perhaps the very image of domestic labor in pre-world war Britain was a typical upper-class Victorian household. The family would have a butler to oversee the team of domestic laborers, with maids, cooks, housekeepers and even nannies making up the domestic force in a single household. In the 1800s and early 1900s, this was how Britain looked like in domestic labor. Yet at the turn of the century, the Industrial Revolution had left a growing middle class. Though the demand for household servants grew, the actual supply of them dwindled (many having paid for their servitude or retired to make their own lives). Interestingly (or rather unfortunately), it was uncommon to see orphans being “liberated” from their positions to become servants (this counted as child labor). After the 1st and 2nd world war, domestic labor in Britain took a severe downturn. While the men went off to fight overseas, the women who often dominated the domestic services transitioned to new jobs in fields and factories (or even as support roles in the armed services), ensuring that the men could carry on fighting to the bitter end. After the war, this empowerment of women meant that many did not return to their domestic labor positions before the war broke out.
    - - Domestic workers in Colonial India were often slaves or lower-class families who were brought into the service of their British masters. These workers were often given poor treatment, with punishment being common if failure was consistent. Later on, as the British began to soften their grip on the “Jewel in the crown of the empire”, the domestic servants were given better rights and could even achieve their own freedom if their masters decided that their service had been exemplary.
  - - - The history of domestic service in the United States is often one filled with issues and regrettable decisions, but the history still stands. Prior to 1865, slavery was often the main form of domestic service, with many households in the South (where majority of the agricultural households were) often having entire “slave communities” on their plantations. After the civil war, slavery was banished from the country but domestic service still reared its ugly head. Many households still employed black servants, albeit this time they were paid. In fact majority of the black women in the United States during the 20th century were domestic servants, since their ancestors didn’t have the education or experience to try out other jobs. During the 1950s, 60s and 70s the civil rights movement meant that many domestic servants could find their voice simply by refusing to work or not living in the same household as their employers.
    - - Great, now I’ve got to go and research domestic workers and their mistreatment in my own country. Totally won’t be any bias here whatsoever. So let’s get started.
        Since Indonesia has a population of roughly 264 million (a statistic we are very proud of I assure you), it should be logical to expected a fair amount of that number to be employed in the domestic services. In fact, the International Labour Organisation puts the number at roughly 4.5 million within Indonesia alone, with another 4.5 million being sent abroad. Of this number, 80% of all domestic servants in the country are females. Domestic service provides a large amount of money to the economy, both in terms of the direct payments these servants get as well as the money produced by their employers (who now find more time to contribute to economically productive activities). However, there have been multiple movements in the country to give these workers better rights in multiple aspects. Firstly their wages; Indonesian domestic servants earn only about 1-1.5 million rupiah (60-80 dollars) a month, in some areas that’s less than 30% of the provincial minimum. Another problem is their working hours, many domestic servants work at least 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, as opposed to the 40 hour per week guideline set by the ILO. Third is their mistreatment. Many workers are given inadequate living spaces at their employer’s house, abused and punished for poor jobs and most notoriously, executed for disobeying their employers. The latter is slightly more common abroad, especially in countries such as the Middle East, where majority of Indonesian servants find themselves if they go out of the country. The problem is mainly due to the informality of the contracts; many domestic servants aren’t even recognised as such because they operate in the grey economy. Their earnings and agreements are not monitored by government agencies nor reported by their employers.
    - - South Africa’s history with domestic labor is similar to those who faced colonization under British rule. When South Africa became a British possession, it was not uncommon for “white masters” to employ “colored servants” in their households. However this was soon not the case, as South Africa also possessed a large native population of Boer and Afrikaner people; meaning that the territory was often at war with itself. After the Second Boer war in 1902, domestic labor was less popular, considering that much of the population did not possess the economic power to afford a servant (or even a team of them). In the later years as South Africa faced apartheid, the embodiment of any white South African (either of European, American or western origin) was the exploitation of a colored or native person for domestic labor. After apartheid ended this number still remains, with about 1.1 million (possibly more) South Africans being employed in the Domestic labor service, unfortunately out of that many people, 54,000 are under the age of 15 (child labor once more).
- - - - Commonly associated with childcare in a domestic household is the nanny. A concept that has existed since the age of empires in the 18th century, the nanny is usually a women who remains in the service of their employing family for decades (often for several generations in some cases). The nanny is responsible for looking after the children of the family when the parents are either out of the house or not yet awake.
      - Nannies often report to the lady of the house on any development with the children, though they can at times even be considered a part of the family after some time. In colonial history, nannies were often in the employ of colonial administrators (especially in British India, the Dutch East Indies and French Africa). Many nannies would remain with their families from birth to death, with the family taking them along on family vacations or moving trips.
    - - When we think of a household staff, the image of a sharply dressed (sometimes elderly) man with impeccable manners and a seemingly all-encompassing retinue of skills likely comes to mind. This is the butler, the head servant of a household and often responsible for the duties of the other servants.
      - Modern butlers are still employed in that sense, being huge stores of information about upcoming family events and even having schools dedicated to their training. Butlers are often paid lucrative amounts nowadays (anywhere from $50,000 - $150,000 annually) and often live on the household in their own separate quarters.
      - In Victorian, Elizabethan and Ancient Times, the butler would oversee the housekeeping, cooking and even childcare staff and make sure the entire household functioned as an efficient, punctual unit. Butlers often reported directly to their employers on any complications, news or progress.
    - - Derived from French, au pair roughly translates to “at par” or “equal to”. This indicates that the au pair is meant to become a temporary member of their host family, not a subservient outsider like domestic servants. Au paris are almost always foreign workers who live and work for a host family in another country. Au pairs often take on shared responsibility for household maintenance and childcare, with a monetary allowance being given for their own use. Au pair arrangements are often subjected to strict government restrictions, which limit the age range of au pairs as well as their working hours.
      - In Europe and North America, these agreements often define the age range as between 16 and 24, along with the necessity that they work part-time and study the language of the country they work in. In fact the 1969 European Agreement on Au Pair Placement defines all these guidelines per country. The concept of an au pair emerged after the Second World War, when taxes and the economy prevented many middle class families from gaining their own domestic workers. Below are some
      - common duties of au pairs:
        
        Waking up children/ Taking the kids to school/ Helping the children with their homework/ Doing the children’s laundry Making up the children’s beds/ Cooking light meals for the children to take to school/ Helping parents with house chores from time to time
    - - Amahs were Chinese nannies or servants who often left the rural countryside and went to go work in wealthy households in big cities (i.e Beijing or Shanghai) and possibly Hong Kong. Amahs were also referred to by Portuguese as maids and nannies who worked for colonial administrators back when Portugal had an empire.
      - The etymology of the word is still disputed, some linguists believe it came from the Portuguese word ama meaning “nurse”. Others argue that it came from the English translation of the Chinese ah mah (ah being a common prefix and mah meaning “little mother”).
      - In modern terms it’s more politically-correct (something I hope to never need to type again) to refer to these people as helpers rather than servants.
  - - - Of all the positions in this list, the governess is one of if not the most awkward. Originating in the Victorian Era and persisting until Post WW1 Europe, governesses were middle-class women with a decent education who were given the post of teaching the children in a household. In those times, it was much more preferable for aristocracy and other nobility to hire a governess than send their children to boarding schools for months. In this way, governesses could tailor teaching material to the children’s own needs and gain a fairly substantial income. Traditionally, governesses taught the “Three R’s” to their charges (reading,writing, arithmetic), thought they could also teach the girl how to specialise in certain “desirable” skills (i.e playing the piano, painting or poetry). The governess was often isolated in their own employer’s household, eating in isolation and keeping away from other servants. By definition, she wasn’t a member of the staff nor a member of the host family; so she often kept to herself and didn’t help the children with their actual physical needs (that job fell to the nannies and maids who looked after them).
    - - A girl or young woman often employed in a household with some of their own responsibilities. She could be the only female member of the staff or part of a team that oversaw the cleaning and maintenance of the household.
    - - Ayahs were simply another name for domestic servants and housekeepers (as well as nannies or butlers) that looked after European families in South Asia (this included British India and the Dutch East Indies). The word is likely to have originated from Portuguese and you’d be better off not saying it in Indonesia, as ayah actually means “father” or “dad” in Bahasa.
  - - - The key difference here (and there’s not much else beyond it) is that housewives do not need to have children to be considered a housewife. They simply need to choose not to take an active job and instead spent their days at home, tending to the household and looking after the elders if they live in the same house.
    - - Of course the WSC decides to drop another fictional reference in its history curriculum. If you’ve ever watched Harry Potter, you’ll likely remember one particular character who first popped up in the Chamber of Secrets and met his most unfortunate (and tear-jerking) end in The Deathly Hallows. I am of course, referring to Dobby, house elf to the Malfoys until Harry Potter freed him. Along with Kreacher (house elf for the Blacks), house elves were a common recurring appearance in the Harry Potter universe. Often mistreated and even abused by their owners, house elves are held by law and duty to punish themselves for disobeying any direct orders from their masters. They are however, able to find loopholes in their master’s orders and utilise them from time to time. House elves actually find it fitting if they are punished for not doing their duties and even the notion of being paid or being granted vacations makes them feel absolutely disgraced (Dobby being the main exception). House elves were able to be freed if their masters provided them with a piece of clothing, Dobby was freed in this manner when Harry presented a sock to him. House elves don’t rely on their magic very often, but sometimes the unique ability to apparate where normal wizards and witches cannot comes in handy (especially if Dobby needs to discreetly visit Harry Potter to warm him about attending Hogwarts for the second year).