A maidservant or in current usage maid is a
female employed in domestic service. Once
part of an elaborate hierarchy in great
houses, today the maid may be the only
domestic worker that upper and even
middle-income households can afford. In the
Western world, comparatively few households
can afford live-in domestic help, usually
compromising on periodic cleaners. In less
developed nations, very large differences in
the income of urban and rural households and
between different socio-economic classes,
fewer educated women and limited
opportunities for working women ensures a
labour source for domestic work.
Maids perform typical domestic chores such
as cooking, ironing, washing, cleaning the
house, grocery shopping, walking the family
dog, and taking care of children. In many
places in some poor countries, maids often
take on the role of a nurse in taking care
of the elderly and people with disabilities.
Maids are often expected to work at least
fifteen hours per day.[citation needed] Many
maids are required by their employers to
wear a uniform.
In hierarchical order, the
types of maids in a large household are:
Head House Parlour-maid (or Head Housemaid,
Head Parlour-maid)
House Parlour-maids (or simply housemaid)
(Under House Parlour-maid, if there is only
one)
Chambermaids (also known as housemaids); a
chambermaid is a maid who cleans and cares
for bedrooms
Nursery maids
Kitchen maids, also Between maid
Scullery maids also known as the Cinder maid
Lady's maid - Outside of the normal
hierarchy, the lady's maid was a senior
servant who reported directly to the lady of
the house, rather than to the housekeeper or
butler.
The position of chambermaid is also a job
commonly found in hotels.
In several developing countries, working as
a maid is still one of the main
possibilities a poor young girl may have to
earn an income. It is still usual to some
degree that the parents search their girl a
first job in a chosen house when she is
about 12-15 and ends school. In this first
house she will normally work as an internal
maid, sleeping in the house and dressed
always in uniform which expresses clearly
her position in the house.[citation needed]
She is not supposed to mix with the family
and she must remain apart.
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