| The tradition among middle and upper class families | | | | improved in many countries, but in some countries |
| of employing domestic staff to do household chores | | | | things are still done the old-fashioned way. |
| goes back hundreds of years or more, and offer | | | | Virtually all the domestic staff work in some countries |
| great time-saving value to their employers who are | | | | is done by immigrant labour, as the local population is |
| busy attending to their jobs, travelling, or attending | | | | unwilling to do it. In other countries the income level |
| business interests. In some societies such as in | | | | between urban and rural inhabitants is so great that |
| England during the Edwardian era, the grooming and | | | | urban families will hire rural migrant labourers to do |
| apprenticeship of domestic staff was elevated to a | | | | domestic work. |
| complex, perfectionist art with strict rules of conduct. | | | | Toward the middle of the twentieth century and |
| All servants had specific duties, such as doing the | | | | beyond, domestic staffing agencies evolved to |
| laundry, taking care of the elderly, running errands, | | | | screen domestic staff applicants to make sure they |
| cooking, setting the table in the proper order, dusting | | | | were able to do typical assigned duties, and were |
| the furniture, cleaning the kitchen and bathroom | | | | then sent to families as temporary workers. This |
| among other duties, sometimes assigned by gender. | | | | served a double purpose of offering a prospective |
| A butler and a family chauffeur were functions done | | | | family a worker that was capable of doing whatever |
| only by men, while child-rearing duties were only done | | | | the family wanted, plus the domestic staff worker |
| by females. | | | | would receive a fixed wage and fixed number of |
| Most domestic staff around the world usually had | | | | hours during the time they were employed. It also |
| little or no legal protection, typically being treated as | | | | offered legal protection to both parties since either |
| only slightly above slave labour without regard to | | | | could report any wrongdoing by the other to the |
| hours worked or wages paid, their lives being at the | | | | staffing agency. It also required the family to notify |
| mercy of their domestic employers. During the early | | | | the agency in advance if they wanted to change the |
| twentieth century in industrialized countries, many | | | | work agreement, such as extended hours or |
| people organized and began demanding better | | | | different days of employment. |
| working conditions for domestic workers, which were | | | | |