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Dear Julie, David Katzman touches on the issue in *Seven Days a Week: Women and Domestic Service in Industrializing America, *(1981). He states, "Sundays and days on which they had afternoons out were anything but days of rest for domestics. Their time out of the house came after working what would have been nearly a full's day work in any other occupation. The 1898 Massachusetts study investigated the actual time domestics labored on days out and Sundays. On both days the domestics averaged between seven and and seven and a half working hours (see Table 3—2). The range of hours worked was wide, with seamstresses, cooks, and a single waitress working the fewest hours. Nursemaids and general houseworkers tended to labor the longest. Indeed, some servants found Sunday and holiday work (Thanksgiving and Christmas) especially trying. 'Sunday in a private family,' a servant wrote Lucy Maynard Salmon, 'is usually anything but a day of rest to the domestic, for on that day there are usually guests to dinner or tea or both, which means extra work.'" (114-115) Sincerely, Ellen Berg --- Ellen L. Berg Affiliate Assistant Professor Department of History University of Maryland eberg12@umd.edu ------------------------------------------ Scott E. Randolph, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of History Armstrong Atlantic State University Curator, Erie Lackawanna Historical Society -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
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