The days of permanent service didn’t suddenly end with the arrival of the 20th century – it took a long time for change to come about
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In 1901, one-third of British women were in domestic service, but less than 20 years later there were predictions of a ‘servant problem’. During World War I, women had driven buses, threshed in fields and ripped their hands in munitions factories; they’d proved their economic worth and for some it was a first taste of freedom. Why on Earth would they want to return, en masse, to the ignominy of domestic service?
When the men went to fight in WWI, women took on their jobs making munitions and more