Would you have worked as a housemaid in Victorian England?

Question

I am really fascinated with the movies and shows on TV that discuss the world of maids in the past. Although I do fairly well today, I could totally see myself working in those conditions.

If you were put in the same spot in history do you think you would have worked as a maid? What kind of maid would you be?

Or if you were wealthy, do you think you would have a maid? Would you make your servants wear uniforms or would you have been more relaxed.

Answer 1

My family were labourers and farmhands in Victorian times.. and so it is likely I may have worked on the farm or been a maid in a manor or something  ( the Owner of the estates' home??)...

I think I would have been a farm maid, milking the goats and cows, collecting the eggs, making the butter... baking bread?  raising the children.

Answer 2

I think I'd probably be respectable enough to work in the family's quarters. Perhaps a nursery maid or somesuch.

And I'd have had a maid if I were wealthy, it's the proper thing to do =P

Answer 3

More than like, I would have been a downstairs maid. In Victorian and Edwardian society, your station would have been determined by your father's occupation. My dad is a plumber, so as a tradesman's daughter, I'm out of the kitchen, but not "genteel" enough to enter the more intimate family quarters.

If I were wealthy back then, heck,yeah, they'd wear uniforms, and they'd do a good job, mind their p's and q's,and call me ma'am while they curtsey and bow, or they'd be sacked so fast their heads would spin! ah, daydreams!

Answer 4

After seeing what they had to endure, no.

Answer 5

I would never want to be a maid!

Answer 6

I would not have made a very good housemaid as I hate housework and am not very good at it.  If I absolutely had to do it though then I suppose I would.  I don't know how long I would last in the job though.  I would have prefered to be a nursery maid though and eventually get to be a nanny, as I like children and generally get on quite well with them.

If I was wealthy then of course I would have servants, and servants generally wore uniforms.  You didn't have to be wealthy to have servants in Victorian England though, even a family of quite modest means could afford to employ a maid-of-all-work to assist the mistress of the house.  And a middle-class family coul afford a cook and a couple of maids and a nanny for the children without too much difficultly.

Servants would not generally have minded wearing uniforms, they usually took a pride in their work and did not see anything degrading about wearing a uniform.

And I don't think being a kitchen maid (as a comment above suggests) was considered a bad thing in Victorian times.  From being a kitchen maid you could get to be a cook, which was a good job.  A good cook was highly valued by her employers.