Note 239 — Chapter VI · DIFFICULTIES IN DOMESTIC SERVICE FROM THE STANDPOINT OF THE EMPLOYER
Reading edition
“Our committee have been greatly puzzled to know how to supply the constantly increasing demand for good and efficient workers in small households, where fair compensation is offered for moderate requirements. This demand is great in the city, but more so in the suburbs and country. It is very difficult to find a woman willing to take service in a family living out of sight of Boston Common. It is still more difficult to find any one who will go twenty miles into the country.”—Report of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, Boston, 1888, p. 29.
One employer in an inland city of twenty-five thousand inhabitants, who has a family of eight, and employs sixteen servants, writes: “It is impossible here to secure competent servants.”
Another employer, employing thirteen servants, in a city of twelve thousand, writes: “It is very difficult to secure servants, since women here prefer to work in the factories.”
One employer with seven servants and a family of two, in a large manufacturing city, says: “It is impossible to find well-trained employees.”