DOMESTIC SERVANTS

Evening Star, Issue 22442, 12 September 1936, Page 8

DOMESTIC SERVANTS

INCREASED STATUS OBTAINED More than one European country is discovering that, if home life is to be preserved, then those who occupy the position of domestic servants must be accorded a status at least as honourable, if not more so, than workers in other occupations (states the ‘ Christ tion Science Monitor ’). The Scandinavian countries have, for some time past, laid special stress upon the fundamental importance of home and its relation to national life, and on this account have included domes* tic works as part of each normal fanu ily. In Austria, the Reichsorganisatiod dor Hausfrauen Osterreichs —conn posed as it was not only of the housewives of Austria but also of their, maids—has decided to admit representatives of the maids as delegates to the general assembly of the society. Hungary, which has, for a number ol years, known the value of the domestic worker, and appreciated her, has recently decorated 164 of its household servants in recognition of their faithful services. Julia Stefan, who received a gold medal for services rendered to a singlo family for 50 years, was cheered as ai heroine. Maria Kress*, with a record of 30 years behind her, received am ovation hardly less enthusiastic. GOLD MEDALS PRESENTED. There were 27 gold medals presented for services lasting 20 year* with the same families and 50 for services lasting 10 years, and a host of copper medals commemorating services performed for five years. In Great Britain, the low status of the domestic worker has stood very definitely in the way of the easy absorption into it of young women thrown out of employment in other fields of work.. Discussing the matter recently at the annual conference of the Electrical Association for Women, the question was raised as to whether matters might not bo improved by equipping domestic workers with a technical knowledge not in the possession of their mistresses. With the coming to the homo of electrical labour-saving devices, maidj would be on a different footing, it waa decided, if they were capable, of doing their own “ running repairs.” Th« maid who could maintain her vacuum cleaner in a state of workableness, who could see that the flex on her iron is in running order, who could understand the why and wherefore of her electric cooker, would be regarded in any as a valuable asset and treated accordingly. The association decided to open an electrical course and to issue certificates of efficiency to domestic servants which, as they were careful to explain, would not be “ too complicated-” nor “ too exacting,” but which, in a friendly and sociable way. would impart knowledge whereby not merely, technical skill but social status would be imeroved. - ■ v