There are still Negro personal maids who make provision for the special comfort and well being of their employers as well as do their little mending, and the like. And there are Negro pantry maids whose first duty it is to make salads. Chambermaid-waitresses and parlor maids to do such as to answer the door bell are also still used. The tendency, however, is in the direction of having but the one general maid, together with a laundress to come in by the day. Mothers' helpers or young girls to assist in all the work of the house and with the children are also being employed quite extensively, and at less wages than would be paid to an older general houseworker.
These different occupations for the most part call for different types of workers. A butler or a chambermaid-waitress who is tall and comely may have access to a larger number and to better places than one who is short. Especially is this true of cooks for apartment or for a general houseworker where there are stairs to climb. These are much more frequently chosen from among the medium-sized women than from the stout women. The reason for the latter choice is apparent. In the case of the butler or chambermaid-waitress, the basis of choice is apparently appearance and custom.
V. Living Conditions, Health, Social Life, Organizations of Negro Domestic Workers, and Their Relation to Employment Agencies
Living conditions here refer only to those on employers' premises. The general living conditions of Negro domestic workers in different parts of the country, or even in different localities of the same section, vary so widely that the subject cannot be treated here. For example, in the South laundresses for the most part take bundle wash to their small homes, and do large "washes" there. Such a situation makes it difficult for southern Negro laundresses to live comfortably and healthfully. Laundresses in the North are relieved of this problem by going to the homes of employers, but, on the other hand, are affected by the excessive rents and the overcrowding in their own homes.
Living conditions on employers' premises for domestic workers vary to some extent in different homes of the same city but to a larger extent in the different sections of the country and in different cities of the same section. In Montgomery, Alabama, for example, out of two hundred Negro female domestic workers interviewed, 54 or about 27 per cent were living in a two-room detached frame house on the rear of the employers' premises. The remaining 73 per cent did not "sleep in" or live on their employers' premises. In Philadelphia, living conditions on employers' premises are reported as being good. They consist, in the main, of a third floor room. Very few basement rooms are offered as living quarters for domestic workers in that city. In Indianapolis, about 50 per cent of those working by the week among the 471 domestic workers go home nights. Living conditions for those "sleeping in" are fair as a rule. Some have basement rooms but a majority of them have rooms either on the third floor or in the attic or over a garage. A small percentage of the homes have a bath room for the maid.
Employment agencies in Boston, New York City, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, and Los Angeles give favorable reports on the living conditions of domestic workers who "sleep in." While the reports from Baltimore are not as conclusively favorable as for the above-named cities, one fact stands out prominently, namely: that in the main, only apartment houses in that city offer basement rooms as living quarters for domestic workers. Employment agencies in all of the cities mentioned state that there are far more calls for workers to "sleep in" than there are workers who are willing to do so.
Out of 500 domestic workers in Washington, D. C., selected at random from 3,000 permanent employees for the year 1921-22, about 64.1 per cent were requested to "sleep in." Out of an equal number of employers requesting workers to "sleep in," selected in the same manner, about 83 per cent provided basement rooms as sleeping quarters for such workers; about 10 per cent either provided first floor or third floor rooms—some of them with baths; about 7 per cent either offered attics or they failed to furnish a statement as to the location of the rooms. Occasionally an employer would like to have the worker "sleep in" but because of having only a basement room to offer, she would forego her wish in the interest of the health of the employee. Two of the workers sent out from this office were partially incapacitated by the poor living and working conditions. One of the problems, however, involved in housing domestic employees is the frequency of the turnover which necessarily brings in different kinds of workers, varying in degrees of personal cleanliness and health.
Closely connected with the living conditions, too, are the working conditions of domestic employees. In fact, one of the strains of such service often is the lack of break between the place of work and of living, which makes for resulting monotony and much loneliness. Much of a domestic worker's life is spent in the kitchen, in the laundry or on the premises of his employer. The only available accurate data on this point have come from Indianapolis, Ind. This was secured in response to a questionnaire sent to the employers who were patrons of the employment office at Flanner House. The following table gives a summary of the replies as to the appliances employers had in their homes for use of Negro domestic workers.
Replies from 523 Employers Showing the Appliances in the Homes for Doing Laundry Work, in Indianapolis, Ind., April, 1922