Why Servants Live (1 results)

A broadside advertising an article written in the October 1915 issue of The Ladies Home Journal with an answer to the question "Why should our servants live with us?" from Mrs. Christine Frederick. The author argues servants should live outside the home and housework should become more standardized. The relation of the lady of the home to her servants would be more similar to an employer in business to the employee. She debunks arguments about the extra cost for servants living outside the home and the potential for them to be led into immorality. "We may flatter ourselves that we 'protect' our servants, but the fact remains that more servants 'go wrong' than girls in any other employment," she wrote. The reason is the loneliness, confinement and lack of stimulus resulting from not living in her own home or a rooming house. Frederick advocates in the article for training centers, where "girls" could live and attend evening classes. "I believe standardized work and sleeping out of the home will dignify housework and attract a better class of girls." Born in Boston, Frederick (1883-1970) graduated in 1906 from Northwestern University, becoming a teacher. A year later, she met and married her husband, Justus George Frederick, a business executive and exponent of Taylorism. They moved to New York, where she conducted efficiency experiments in their own home. She is credited with bringing about standard height of kitchen counters and surfaces. Beginning in 1912, she wrote a series of articles under the "New Housekeeping" title for Ladies' Home Journal, which were subsequently published in a book "The New Housekeeping: Efficiency Studies in Home Management." The broadside is 7" x 11" and printed in black and white on heavy card stock in very good condition. A unique piece of advertising ephemera centered on women's working issues at the turn of the last century.