The servant problem has become more acute than ever in London since the outbreak of war, and special difficulty is found in securing girls to do the work of parlourmaids. Those now in this position are leaving their places for more lucrative work, and housemaids as a class have no wish to combine waiting at table with their other duties.
The deficiency is explained in different ways in different districts. At one end of the scale girls are taking up the duties formerly performed by footmen and butlers, or have left service to undertake Government work. Some have grown nervous of air raids and have returned to their homes in the country. Hundreds of parlourmaids have left situations in middle-class families to become waitresses in hotels and restaurants.
When the war started and foreign waiters returned to their own countries to fight, a brisk demand arose for girls who were trained to wait at table, and higher wages and greater freedom proved strong attraction, in some cases girls were offered ú1 a week and their meals to take up this work, and in restaurants where less money was given there were prospects of gratuities which would raise the remuneration to a point well beyond the standard wages paid in domestic service. And many of the smarter and more intelligent maids have found even better opportunities.
It might have been expected that housemaids would be glad to pass on to a parlourmaid's position, but experience has shown that there is no such desire. The housemaid has more chance of liberty in the evening and does not like work which keeps her busy until a late hour. For situations involving both duties there are hardly any applications, and in numerous homes where such a practice has been unknown in the past, families are now compelled to wait on themselves at meals.
Even those who are most prepared to put up with temporary inconveniences in the special circumstances of war time, feel misgivings as to whether servants will come back to service on the old terms when the war is over.
.lcUntil 1914 the majority of working women were employed in domestic service. Responding to the government's recruitment drive, many left their positions to train as munitions workers, engineers and nurses. The war years initiated women's entry into the public employment field.
