DOMESTIC SERVICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 June 1940, Page 6

DOMESTIC SERVICE

BRITAIN’S DECLINING BIRTH RATE.

Coupled with family allowances, there should be a bold attempt to tackle the domestic problem .writes Mr R. H. Gretton in discussing the problem of tlie declining birthrate in Britain. This needs some consideration on its own account. By the domestic problem. I do not mean the regrettable fact that Mrs Smith, as she so often imparts to Mrs Jones and Mrs Robinson, is unable to get suited with a maid answering to her requirements. 1 mean that the conditions of work and social standing of domestic service are such as to drive most women to seek almost any alternative Io it. so that there is an inadequate supply of this essential labour. We need first a whiff or two of clear, social thinking, to dissipate the notion that domestic service is a less honourable form of work than, say. the post of bookmaker's clerk or mannequin. We have seen the status of shop assistants raised immensely in recent years, so that they include women and even men of social classes who, even before the last war, would have thought such employment degrading. There is no reason why the same thing should not happen to domestic servants. A body of registered domestic workers should be organised, trained by some sort of apprentice system in approved households, supplemented by part-time further education, and guaranteed clearly defined conditions and hours of work, as well as acceptable food and accommodation, and wages according to a standard scale.