Western Civilization II / Unit 9 WC2 0822 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Domestic Service: The Largest Sector, Invisible to Economists
Captions available
The idea
Domestic service was nineteenth-century Britain's largest employment sector, the anchor says, ignored by economists including Marx. A maid of all work rose before dawn for a seventeen-hour day. As late as nineteen forty more than half of Europe's earning women were servants.
In practice
Servants existed because middle-class women did not earn.
Where people slip
The figures are the anchor's.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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