Editing Maid (section)

==Description==
Maids perform typical domestic chores such as [[laundry]], [[ironing]], [[cleaning]] the house, grocery shopping, [[cooking]], and caring for household pets. They may also [[child care|take care of children]], although there are more specific occupations for this, such as [[nanny]]. In some poor countries, maids take care of the elderly and people with disabilities. Many maids are required by their employers to wear a [[uniform]].

In the contemporary [[Western world]], comparatively few households can afford live-in domestic help, usually relying on [[cleaner]]s, employed directly or through an agency ([[maid service]]). 
Many services historically provided by maids have been [[substitute good|substituted]] with [[home appliances]].

In less developed nations, various factors ensure a labour source for domestic work: very large differences in the income of urban and rural households, widespread poverty, fewer [[Female education|educated women]], and limited opportunities for the employment of less educated women.

Legislation in many countries makes certain living conditions, working hours, or minimum wage a requirement of domestic service. Nonetheless, the work of a maid has always been hard, involving a full day, and extensive duties.  Maids would be familiar with hard work and typically worked long hours in a week.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A day in the life of a servant |url=https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-servant |access-date=2023-05-25 |website=National Trust for Scotland |language=en}}</ref>

===Europe===
Maids were once part of an elaborate hierarchy in [[great house]]s, where the [[retinue]] of servants stretched up to the housekeeper and butler, responsible for female and male employees respectively. It was the best and most common way that women could earn money, especially lower class women.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Lasser |first=Carol |date=January 1987 |title=The domestic balance of power: Relations between mistress and maid in nineteenth-century new England |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00236568700890011 |journal=Labor History |language=en |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=5–22 |doi=10.1080/00236568700890011 |issn=0023-656X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The word "maid" itself means an unmarried young woman or virgin. Domestic workers, particularly those low in the hierarchy, such as maids and [[footmen]], were expected to remain unmarried while in service.<ref>David Hume, ''Essay XI''</ref><ref>Thomas Malthus, ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'', p.139</ref> They had their own section of rooms in the house, though they were far away from the other rooms and weren’t anywhere near as nice as the rest of the house.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Moreira |first1=Ana |last2=Farias |first2=Hugo |title=The Maid's Room: Inception, Obsolescence, and Transfiguration |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/378100267}}</ref>

Some households employed maids-of-all-work as young as twelve in the 19th century in England and they often worked from five in the morning until late in the evening on a wage of £6 to £9 per year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jeffers |first=Regina |date=2020-02-07 |title=Life Below Stairs: Life as a Maid-of-all Work in Victorian England |url=https://reginajeffers.blog/2020/02/07/life-below-stairs-life-as-a-maid-of-all-work-in-victorian-england/ |access-date=2023-05-25 |website=Every Woman Dreams... |language=en}}</ref> They had no free time and typically only had one or two days off in a month.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fauve-Chamoux |first=Antoinette |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNxY41BTOgAC&dq=history+of+domestic+help+england&pg=PA277 |title=Domestic Service and the Formation of European Identity: Understanding the Globalization of Domestic Work, 16th-21st Centuries |date=2004 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-3-03910-589-2 |language=en}}</ref>

In Victorian England, all middle-class families would have "help", but for most small households, this would be only one employee, the maid of all work, often known colloquially as "the girl".

Historically, many maids suffered from [[prepatellar bursitis]], an inflammation of the [[prepatellar bursa]] caused by long periods spent on the knees for purposes of scrubbing and fire-lighting, leading to the condition attracting the colloquial name of "housemaid's knee".<ref>{{cite web |last=Tidy |first=Colin |title=Housemaid's Knee (Prepatellar Bursitis) |url=http://patient.info/health/housemaids-knee-prepatellar-bursitis |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221015112112/https://patient.info/bones-joints-muscles/knee-pain-patellofemoral-pain/housemaids-knee-prepatellar-bursitis |archive-date=Oct 15, 2022 |work=Patient.info|date=28 June 2020 }}</ref>

As the end of the nineteenth century neared, the relationship between employer and servant grew more and more distant and they were less loyal.<ref name=":0" /> At the end of the nineteenth century, there was a decline in the want for maids and other servants entirely, which has led to today when the majority of people don’t have maids.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Higgs |first=Edward |date=1983 |title=Domestic servants and households in Victorian England |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03071028308567561 |journal=Social History |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=201–210 |doi=10.1080/03071028308567561 |via=Taylor and Francis Online|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Asia===
{{See also|Migrant workers in the Gulf region|Foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong|Foreign workers in Saudi Arabia}}

Today, foreign women are employed in [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Kuwait]], [[Qatar]], [[Lebanon]],  [[Singapore]], [[Hong Kong]], [[Japan]] and [[United Arab Emirates]] in large numbers to work as maids or other roles of domestic service, and are often vulnerable to multiple forms of abuse.<ref>{{cite web |last=Varia |first=Nisha |date=7 July 2008 |title="As If I Am Not Human" - Abuses against Asian Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia |url=https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/07/07/if-i-am-not-human/abuses-against-asian-domestic-workers-saudi-arabia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221121104011/https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/07/07/if-i-am-not-human/abuses-against-asian-domestic-workers-saudi-arabia |archive-date=Nov 21, 2022 |website=[[Human Rights Watch]]}}</ref><ref name="the guardian1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/13/saudi-arabia-treatment-foreign-workers |date=13 January 2013| title=Saudi Arabia's treatment of foreign workers under fire after beheading of Sri Lankan maid |last=Chamberlain |first=Gethin |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=14 January 2013}}</ref><ref name="humanrightswatch1">{{cite web |author=Human Rights Watch |url=http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?page=printdoc&amp;docid=412ef32a4 |title='Bad Dreams:' Exploitation and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia |publisher=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |date=14 July 2004 |access-date=14 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200312095552/https://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?page=printdoc&docid=412ef32a4 |archive-date=12 March 2020 |url-status=dead }}</ref> An ''ayi'' (''aunt'' in Mandarin) works as a domestic helper in China, and occasionally provides personalized childcare.