I'd appreciate it if you could help me
When most people think of domestic servants, they think of women (maids) in uniform. Originally, however, domestic servants in the United Kingdom were not always women. It was only in the 19th century that women became the predominant type. Why were domestic servants feminized?
In the pre-industrial era, male domestic servants were more common in the kitchen and other household chores, especially in upper-class families. Male domestic servants are called boys. There are several reasons for the decline in the number of male servants, but the main reason is that with the development of industrialization, male workers were needed in urban industries. Because taxes were imposed only on the employment of male servants and the wages of male servants increased, from the 19th century, female workers, who could be hired cheaply and were more obedient, came to have a near monopoly on domestic servitude.
Life at the "bottom of the stairs" was never easy, especially for the housemaids who did everything by themselves and were forced to work like oxen and horses for 17 hours a day. However, domestic servitude was considered a "respectable" job for working-class women. However, domestic service was seen as a "respectable" (elegant) way of working for working-class women, as they worked under the supervision of the head of the household. It was also considered good training for future marriages for girls from rural areas.
-- 朝日百科世界の歴史 19 世紀
However, due to World War I, the number of female maids decreased. This was because men went off to war and there was a shortage of manpower in factories, so women took up factory jobs. The same thing happened to girls as it did to boys during industrialization. This trend also led women workers to believe that industrial workers were "full-fledged" workers and that domestic servitude was inferior. A shift in values occurred. Even after the war ended, many women left the domestic service for other occupations, resulting in a rapid decline in the number of domestic servants. The decline in the number of domestic servants was not halted by raising pledges for domestic servants. The domestic servant profession could no longer compete with the newly opened positions for women in urban industries (clerks, clerks, and other white-collar jobs). Incidentally, the decline in the number of domestic servants led to the "mechanization" of housework, which had been delayed until then.
