Domestic service and the formation of European identity: understanding the globalization of domestic work, 16th-21st centuries

299 Pages·2004·129.84 MB·English

by  Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux (ed.).

Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux (Ed.)
DOMESTIC SERVICE AND
THE FORMATION
OF EUROPEAN IDENTITY
Understanding the Globalization
of Domestic Work, 16th-21st Centuries
PETER LANG
Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles * Frankfurt am Main • New York • Oxford • Wien
Forword
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek
Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National-
bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at
<http://dnb.ddb.de>. The Editor dedicates this book, with deep gratitude, on the one hand to the
modest nannies and "bonnes-a-tout-faire" of all ages and forgotten family
British Library and Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data:
names, who looked after her in childhood, alleviating for her mother and
A catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library,
grand-mothers the weight of daily household and family duties, so allow
Great Britain, and from The Library of Congress, USA.
ing them enough freedom to develop some professional and social life,
and, on the other hand, to all current home helpers, immigrant "maids" of
Paris and other European cities, "women-of-all-work", looking after the
young and the aged family members when she and her female colleagues
teach, write or meet, this means so many trustable and representative fig
ures of the current globalization of home help and care, without whom life
would be far more difficult and the European "Servant Project" less suc
cessful.
Published with support of the European Union (Contract n°:
HPSE-CT2001-50012), and the help of Centre de Recherches Historiques/
Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en
Sciences Sociales (Paris), France.
91270-W
VI
Text design: Carlo Dottor Communication
Cover illustration: Camille Pissarro: The Little Country Maid, 1882
© Tate, London 2004
Cover design: Thomas Jaberg, Peter Lang A8£\JiiIic
ISBN 3-03910-589-2
US-ISBN 0-8204-7042-2
© Peter Lang AG, European Academic Publishers, Bern 2004
Hochfeldstrasse 32, Postfach 746, CH-3000 Bern 9, Switzerland
[e-mail], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming,
and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
Printed in Germany
Acknowledgements
The Editor wishes to express her appreciation of the encouragement and
daily help she received from the Centre de Recherches Historiques of the
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales/Centre National de la Re
cherche Scientifique (France), this academic institution being responsible
for the publication of this book, as principal contractor in the European
Servant Project. She is grateful to Professor Suzy Pasleau, University of
Liege, Laboratoire de Recherches sur les Societes Industrielles (Belgium),
who assumed the coordination of the European Servant Project and to
Isabelle Schopp for her permanent assistance in this task. All planned
Seminars were co-organized beautifully by European colleagues, Suzy
Pasleau (Bruxelles, Belgium, December 2001), Regina Schulte (European
University Institute of Florence, Italy, February 2002), S0lvi Sogner (Uni
versity of Oslo, Departement of History, Norway, June 2002), Carmen
Sarasua (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Department of Economics
and Economic History, Spain, December 2002), Richard Wall (University
of Essex, Department of History, United Kingdom, May 2003), and John
Komlos, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Economic History
Institute, Germany, September 2003), with respectively the local help of
Eliane Gubin (Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Groupe interdisciplinaire
d'Etudes sur les Femmes and Fonds Suzanne Tassier), Pothiti Hant-
zaroula, Hans Henrik Bull, Beatrice Moring, Helma Lutz, Belinda Wa
terman, Liliane Komlos and Christiane Artz in Paris. She would like to
express her gratitude to Katherine Tschopp of Peter Lang AG, Carlo Dot-
tor, Janet Marcus, Mary Louise Nagata and Raffaella Sarti for their assis
tance in preparing the manuscript.
Table of Contents
List of Contributors XIII
List of Illustrations XV
Introduction
Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux 1
Servant Project Network Composition and Structure 12
PART I
DOMESTIC SERVICE, LIFE COURSE
AND SOCIAL RENEWAL IN EUROPE
1. The Social and Economic Significance of Servant Migration
Richard Wall 19
2. Migration, Servanthood and Assimilation in a New Environment
Beatrice Moring 43
3. Life-Cycle Servants in Nineteenth Century Sweden:
Norms and Practice
Christer Lundh 71
4. Female Domestic Servants in Sundsvall.
A Swedish Sawmill Town, during Industrialization
Marie-Christine (Lotta) Vikstrom 87
5. Agricultural Work, Social Structure and Labour Markets
of the Rural Domestic Service in Galicia
in the Mid-Eighteenth Century
Isidro Dubert 113
6. Domestic Service in Spain, 1750-1836:
the Domestic Servants of the Clergy
Ofelia Rey Castelao and Raquel Iglesias Estepa 127
7. Domestic Staff in the Czech Lands at the Turn of the 19th
and 20th Centuries in the Light of Statistical Figures
Ludmila Fialovd 141
X Table of Contents Table of Contents XI
PART II 17. Gender Inequalities in the New Global Economy
DOMESTIC SERVICE AND THE EVOLUTION OF LAW Rhacel Salazar Parrenas 369
8. The Legal Status of Servants in Norway 18. The Dynamics of the Mistress-Servant Relationship
from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century Pothiti Hantzaroula 379
S0lvi Sogner 175
9. Domestic Service in Spain.
PART IV
Legislation, Gender and Social Practice
SERVANT ADAPTABILITY TO THE LABOUR MARKET,
Aurelia Martin Casares 189 PAST AND PRESENT
10. Domestic Service and the Law in Early Modern Japan
19. Mistresses of Themselves? Female Domestic Servants
Mary Louise Nagata 211
and By-Employments in Sixteenth-Century Scottish Towns
11. Political Reforms in the Domestic Service Sector - Elisabeth Ewan 411
Aims and Impact
20. The Three Colours of Domestic Service in Belgium
Karen Jaehrling 235
at the Start of the Twenty-First Century
12. Promoting Domestic Workers' Human Dignity Suzy Pasleau and Isabelle Schopp 435
through Specific Regulation
21. Gender, Care and Globalization as seen from Norway
Adelle Blacken 247
Louise Widding Isaksen 455
22. Irish Domestic Servants and English National Identity
PART III Bronwen Walter 471
THE MAID, THE MASTER AND THE FAMILY
23. Was Bridget's Experience Unique? A Comparative View
13. From Family Member to Employee: of American Domestic Service over Time and Space
Aspects of Continuity and Discontinuity Margaret Lynch-Brennan 489
in English Domestic Service, 1600-2000
24. Were Servants Paid according to their Productivity?
Sheila Mclsaac Cooper 277
Carmen Sarasiia 517
14. Irregular Migration and the Globalization of Domestic Work:
25. Domestic Service in Precolonial India:
Migrant Domestic Workers in Germany
Bondage, Caste and Market
Helma Lutz and Susanne Schwalgin 297
Shireen Moosvi 543
15. Calling the Tune: Domestic Worker's Earnings
and Intra-Household Gender Relations in Turkey
PARTV
Gift Ozyegin 317
SOME PORTRAITS
16. Women Breadwinners in the Margins:
Filipina Domestic Workers in Rome, Italy Domestic Workers - Past and Present 577
Margaret Magat 351
List of Contributors
BLACKETT, Adelle, University McGill (Canada) and Labour Law and
Labour Relations Specialist at the International Labour Organisation,
Geneva (Switzerland)
COOPER, Sheila Mclsaac, University of Indiana (Indianapolis), Depart
ment of History (United States)
DUBERT, Isidro, University of Santiago de Compostela, Department of
History (Spain)
EWAN, Elisabeth, University of Guelph, Department of History (Canada)
FAUVE-CHAMOUX, Antoinette, Centre de Recherches Historiques, Ecole
des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales/CNRS, Paris (France)
FIALOVA, Ludmila, Charles University, Prague, Department of Demogra
phy and Geodemography (Czech Republic)
HANTZAROULA, Pothiti, European University Institute (Florence), (Italy)
and University of Thessaly, Volos (Greece)
IGLESIAS ESTEPA, Raquel, University of Santiago de Compostela, De
partment of History (Spain)
ISAKSEN, Louise Widding, University of Bergen, Department of Sociol
ogy (Norway)
JAEHRLING, Karen, Institute for Work and Technology, Gelsenkirchen
(Germany)
LUNDH, Christer, University of Lund, Department of Economic History
(Sweden)
LUTZ, Helma, University of Muenster, Department of Education and So
cial Sciences (Germany)
LYNCH-BRENNAN, Margaret, University of the State of New York, State
Education Department (United States)
MARTIN CASARES, Aurelia, University of Granada, Department of Social
Anthropology (Spain)
MAG AT, Margaret, Center for Folklore and Ethnography, University of
Pennsylvania (United States)
MOOSVi, Shireen, Aligarh Muslim University, Department of History
(India)
MORING, Beatrice, University of Essex, Department of History (United
Kingdom)
XIV List of Contributors
NAGATA, Mary Louise, Centre de Recherches Historiques, EHESS/ List of Illustrations
CNRS, Paris (France)
OZYEGIN, GUI, Williamsburg, College of William and Mary, Sociology
and Women's Studies Program (United States)
1. A Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid. Jan Vermeer, 1670,
PARRENAS, Rhacel Salazar, University of California, Davis, Asian Ameri National Gallery of Ireland 161
can Studies (United States)
2. The Hon. John and the Hon. Thomas Hamilton
PASLEAU, Suzy, University of Liege, Laboratoire de Recherches sur les with a Negro Servant. William Aikman, 1728,
Societes Industrielles (Belgium)
The Mellerstain Trust 162
REY CASTELAO, Ofelia, University of Santiago de Compostela, Depart
3. The Governess. Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin, 1738,
ment of History (Spain)
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa 163
SARASUA, Carmen, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Department of 4. Back from the Market (La Pourvoyeuse). Jean-Baptiste Simeon
Economics and Economic History (Spain)
Chardin, 1739, Musee du Louvre (RMN), Paris 164
SCHWALGIN, Susanne, University of Muenster, Department of Education
5. Chocolate Maid (la Chocolatiere). Jean-Etienne Liotard,
and Social Sciences (Germany)
c. 1744-45, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden 165
SCHOPP, Isabelle, University of Liege, Laboratoire de Recherches sur les
6. Thomas Hodges, College servant. L.L., 1768,
Societes Industrielles (Belgium)
The Warden and scholars of New College, Oxford 166
SOGNER, S0lvi, University of Oslo, Department of History (Norway)
7. A Lady's Maid Soaping Linen. Henry Robert Morland,
ViKSTROM, Marie-Christine (Lotta), Umea University, Department of
c. 1765-82, Tate Gallery, London 167
Historical Demography (Sweden)
8. The Cook. Francois Bonvin, 1846, Musee de Mulhouse 168
WALL, Richard, University of Essex, Department of History (United
9. The Indiscreet Servant. Francois Bonvin, painted 1871,
Kingdom)
Collection Tanenbaum, Toronto 169
WALTER, Bronwen, Anglia Polytechnic University (Cambridge), Irish
10. Woman at the Fountain. Francois Bonvin, 1858,
Diaspora Studies (United Kingdom)
The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore 170
11. Maids of All work. John Finnie, 1864-65,
The Geffrye Museum, London 171
12. Her First Place. George Dunlop Leslie, c. 1885,
Christopher Wood Gallery, London 172
13. A Servant Cook in a Wealthy Household. Engraving, 1862.
Museo Municipal, Madrid 529
14. Woman (servant?) hand-milling flour or kneading dough.
Terracotta from Harappa, 2500-2000 B.C 545
15. The Queen's Toilet. Ajanta painting, Cave XVIII,
6th century A.D 561
16. Palanquin-men and Porters in "Prince Salim greets his mother"
in Akbarnama, National Museum MS, c. 1600 562
17. "Cooks" from an illustration of Baburnama
(Persian translation of 'Abdu'r Rahim Khan Khanan),
British Museum MS, painting from Akbar's atelier, c. 1600 563
XVI List of Illustrations
18. "Torch-men" (mash 'alchis) from Padshahnama, Introduction
Windsor Castle MS, painting from Shahjahan's atelier, c. 1650 ....564
19. Women servants separating cotton from seeds
by "Indian cotton-gin " (right), separating fibres
Antoinette FAUVE-CHAMOUX
by pestle-and-board (left), and hand-spinning yarn (centre).
Ajanta painting, Cave I, 6th century AD 577
20. Woman (servant?) turning hand mill to grind flour.
Miftahu'l Fuzala MS illustration (1469), British Library 577 The condition of European servants has never been a poor field of interest
21. The Inside of Part of Imperial harem: or research until now. We may be surprised at the number of paintings'
"The Birth of Prince Murad". Akbarnama MS illustration and texts which, century after century, describe the lives and conditions of
(c. 1600), National Museum 578 those who constituted perhaps the most important part of the active popu
22. Chobdars (stick-men) from illustration of Baburnama lation. We could also appreciate a full list of studies, mainly monographs,
(Persian translation of 'Abdu'r Rahim Khan khanan) which the thema gave rise to in more recent past decades.2 But time came
British Museum MS, painting in Akbar's atelier, c. 1600 579 for a systematization of this interest and for an extension of its perspec
23. Water-man (saqqa) in Padshahnama, Windsor Castle MS, tives: first for comparative research, to which the European area was first
painting from Shahjahan's atelier, c. 1650 580 evidently to give the necessary background for two types of inquiries. One
24. La garde attentive, Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin, c. 1747, of them concerns the broad economic significance of an apparently purely
n.d., National Gallery of Art, Washington 581 "domestic" activity (after all, domestic service was a specific form, maybe
25. The Studious Servant. Theodule Ribot, c. 1850, the first one, of non-permanent employment contracts), the second one in
Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow 582 its deep social significance as a factor of social cohesion and European
26. Woman at the Fountain. Francois Bonvin, 1861, identification.
Musee du Louvre (RMN), Paris 583 These are the major concern which inspired the initiators of the Ser
27. The Scourer. Francois Bonvin, 1873, Musee St Denis, Reims 584 vant Project* This book is an attempt to determinate with some accuracy
28. The Patent Gridiron. Canadian Illustrated News, 12 May 1877, the role of servants, past and present, in the multi-secular process of socio
Archives Publiques du Canada (APC, C-65833) 585 economic transition and urbanization which affected European societies.
29. Science at a Discount. Canadian Illustrated News, As domesticity, even in remote times, meant some local, regional or
4 January 1873, Archives Publiques du Canada (APC, C-58960)... 586 transnational migration, this study might also help in understanding the
30. How to Dispense with Servants in the Dining Room. contemporary long distance labour migrations linked to new domestic and
William Heath Robinson, 1921, The British Museum, London 587
31. Portrait ofShirani, a care giver born in Sri Lanka, 1952,
with her employer. Plus que Parfaites, Montreal, 2001, p. 120 588 1 See Giles Waterfield, Anne French and Matthew Craske (eds). Below Stairs, 400 years
of servants' portaits, National Portrait Gallery, London, 2003.
32. An Ukrainian woman employed as domestic worker in Milan,
2 For the best overview of the related bibliography, see the Servant Project online Li
Italy and her Italian employer. Gente, 27 March 2003, p. 40 589
brary Database: http://www.uniurb.it/Servantproject/
Content Referee: Raffaella Sarti, Maria Casalini with the help of Helma Lutz and
Susanne Schwalgin.
3 Servant Project is the acronym for "The socio-economic role of males and females in
domestic service as a factor of European identity" (Contract n°: HPSE-CT2001-
50012), Project financed within the Key Action Improving the Socio-economic knowl
edge Base, 2001-2004).
All information on the project may be found on: http://www.servantproject.com/
2 Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux Introduction 3
family service as well as care systems related to demographic and social before our European project, the state of the research did not allow any
changes. conclusion whatsoever, because we had not a comprehensive knowledge
of this servant class. Of course, we did rely on a number of case studies -
some of them useful and enlightening - but their approach of such a wide
field of research was too varied to allow for comparative study. Hence our
effort to associate, within the Servant Project, different groups of research
Domestic Service Past and Present and the Formation
working on a common thematic and to stimulate collaboration between
of European Identity: The Servant Project
historians and social scientists of the present times. It implied building a
scholarly network6 and pan-European compatible databanks. A prelimi
nary Conference held in Brussels, December 2001, "Bonnes pour le ser
The purpose of the Servant Project network4 was not only to study the vice. Declin, professionnalisation et emigration de la domesticite, Europe-
Canada, 19*-20" siecles" was soon published as a special issue of Sextant
socio-economic role of domestic service since the Renaissance and how it
(Gubin and Piette 2001). This process had already begun informally be
contributed to forming a European identity, but to understand the contem
fore a European network came into existence in the framework of a Euro
porary long distance labour migrations linked to new domestic and family
pean Project: the first international meeting devoted to domestic service
service, and care systems related to demographic and social changes.
was held in 1996, Le phenomene de la Domesticite en Europe, XvT-XX
We could no longer be satisfied with an approach to the socio
siecles, Departement of Sociology, Charles University, Pragua (Czech
economic development of Europe that mostly ignored the servant popula
Republic). It was followed by a series of conferences and sessions includ
tion and its variances across time and country, this means 10 to 20 percent
ing: "Women's employment, marriage age and population change", Inter
of the working population (Fauve-Chamoux and Fialova 1997). This is
national Conference held at University of New Delhi, sponsored by the
particularly true when we consider the fact that they were the youngest
International Commission for Historical Demography (CIDH), March
and the most mobile elements - men and women - in these populations
1997; "Domestic Service: comparing European models", Social Science
and therefore the most open to innovation, even if servants of very young
History Association (SSHA), Chicago, November 1998; "Living in the
ages tended to disappear in many European regions (with some excep
City", University La Sapienza, International Conference sponsored by the
tions, as shown by Fauve-Chamoux 2004 for the Central Pyrenees, or
Waris 2004 for Estonia).5 We may suspect how much weight they had in CIDH, September 1999 (Sonnino 2004); "Domestic Service in comparative
perspective", Third European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC),
the socio-cultural mixture and in changes in mentality. We might also
Amsterdam, March 2000. We were happy, thanks to all partners of the
assume that these young people, living often in wealthier and more
learned households than their family of origin, would have felt dissatis
fied, and as a consequence more concerned about social promotion, but,
6 Five seminars were organized during the Servant Project, on the following topics:
4 The Coordinator of the Servant Project was Professeur Suzy Pasleau, LERIDOC -First Seminar in Florence, "Servants and changes in mentality (16th-20th centu
(Laboratoire de Recherches sur les Societes Industrielles), Universite de Liege, Bel ries)", 14-16th February 2002;
gium. The Servant Thematic Network gathered together twenty Institutes or Depart - 2nd Seminar in Oslo, "Domestic service and the emergence of a new conception of
ments, dependent on nineteen Universities or European High Schools, in the fields of labour in Europe", 13-15th June 2002;
Social Sciences, Economics (labour market, female labour), History, Demography, - 3rd Seminar in Barcelona, "Domestic service and the evolution of the law", 12-15th
Statistics, etc. Besides a coordinator, principal contractors and members, several ex December 2002;
perts were invited. The detailed structure and composition of the Network may be fund - 4th Seminar in Essex, "Domestic service, a factor of social revival in Europe", 8-
in Annex, below. 10th May 2003;
5 In Estonia, it was common to take young girls into the household as foster-children, - 5th Seminar in Munich, "The modelization of domestic service", 8-11th September
partly so that they could look after the smaller children in the family 2003.
introduction 5
4 Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux
Project,7 members and invited experts, to cover the whole Europe The "servant" population has been said to make up 17 percent of the
urban adult population (aged more than 15) in seventeenth century Europe
(West/East; North/South) and to be able to compare Europe and extra-
(Cipolla 1976). However, at that time, being a servant was only a transi
European countries as Canada (Lacelle 1987, Barber 1991, de Groot and
tory moment of one's life course and, for many women, a stage before
Ouellet 2001, Baillargeon 2001), USA (Lynch-Brennan's chapter below,
marriage as well as an opportunity to amass wages and marry at a higher
Harzig 1997), India, Japan, Australia (Robinson 1988, Hetherington 2002),
social level. It interested essentially young people, but there was a change
particularly in the present days, considered as an age of globalization).
in the eighteenth century, especially for women. Their growing migration
One of our main aims was to furnish information to policy makers. While
to town, during the early modern period, affected the matrimonial market
discussing the appropriate themas, to that end, four research objectives
conditions (Fauve-Chamoux and Sogner 1994). Celibacy was too often
emerged during our early meetings, with the proposal to cover them in an
the lot of these young populations drawn to town by economic crisis from
interdisciplinary socio-economic approach. These following four research
their villages where they could no longer earn their subsistence. In such
themas are therefore considered in the successive parts of this book.
conditions, the transitory stage of domestic service - with its moral dan
1. Domestic service, life course and social renewal,
gers stressed by so many contemporary thinkers as Thomas Robert Mal-
2. Domestic service and the evolution of law,
thus in his first Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)8 - lasted far
3. Servants and changes in mentality: the relationship between the maid,
longer than expected, often beyond the limits of the normal age at mar
the master and the family,
riage, and could become a permanent occupation.
4. Servant adaptability to the labour market, past and present.
Service was a key factor in the growing urbanization of past European
societies and is still nowadays a key motivation for immigration to
Europe. Beyond apprenticeship, another pattern of education emerged
independent of the old guild system: domestic service was in Europe a sui
Domestic Service, Life Course and Social Renewal generis mechanism for geographical and social mixing. It may be consid
ered as providing to young people, during a moment of there life course, a
strong motivation to pursue social promotion. Whether domestic service
was mostly a "life-cycle" occupation remains subject to discussion: ex
Domestic service was often a "life-cycle occupation", as Peter Laslett
amples of men and women in service during all their entire life can be
called it in The World we have Lost (Laslett 1965). Many chapters in the
seen, but, in the old days, the great majority of male and female servants
present volume trace how it acted as one of the factors of social renewal
used to quit this dependant position to get married. Besides the problem of
all over Europe, be it a temporary or a lifetime occupation (R. Wall,
definition of what is a domestic servant or "family help" and his/her tasks,
B. Moring, C. Lundh, L. Vikstrom, I. Dubert, O. Rey Castelao and R.
present authors have considered both servants and slaves and have in
Iglesias, L. Fialova in the present volume). The first theme discussed in
cluded persons working for institutions (nursing homes, hospitals, con
this volume - domestic service and social renewal - is doubtlessly the best
vents).
documented one, for it being the reason that it always appears, under one
or another form, in statistical studies. Inquiries about migration, about the
growing number of households headed by women living alone, about
professional feminization, etc., brought much useful information, but they
do not always suggest identical conclusions.
8 First Essay on the Principle of Population as it affects the future improvement of soci
ety with remarks on the speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet and other writers,
7 See in Annex the list of members and partners of the Servant project network. 1798 (published anonymously). J. Johnson, London, Chap. IV and Chap. VII.