Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1892 — The London Lady-Help Movement [ARTICLE]

The London Lady-Help Movement

The “lady-help” movement started in London a few years ago was practically a dead failure, but an effort is now to be made to revive it in slightly different shape. For this purpose the Household Auxiliary Association has been formed. Both employers and applicants for situations are to supply references on registering their names as annual members. The ladles who take service are not to be required to take their meals or share a sleepingroom with regular servants, nor will they be asked to undertake scrubbing, blacking boots, or carrying heavy weights up-stairs, although special agreements may be made in particular cases. This is the plan adopted by the Gentlewomen’s Employment Association in Manchester, which has been in operation for a little more than a year, and has just issued its first report. From this it appears that the lady-helps are most desirous of finding situations as companions, positions which are about the most difficult of all to find. There is a good demand for nurses and plenty of ladies willing to undertake the duties of such places, but, curiously enough, most of the employers seem to think that “lady-helps” ought to be willing to work for much smaller wages than those paid to regular servants or even for no wages at all, for the sake of getting a comfortable home. In other words, they feel that they ought not to be called upon to pay equal prices for skilled and unskilled labor. If young “ladies” knew more about ordinary household duties they would be better fitted for making a livelihood if overtaken by misfortune. The problem now is how to divide the necessary preliminary instruction for women absolutely penniless and helpless, without setting them to common “drudgery.” Some day or other the association hopes to have funds for this purpose, but where they are to come from no one yet has the least idea.