The Hidden Labor of the Kitchen

I question whether it has ever occurred to the minds that are moving on so efficiently in the great world's good works—the minds of the ablest and most earnest of women—that within their very hands is a class of workers entirely overlooked in the movements for the shortening of the hours of labor, and for the spiritual and intellectual elevation of the working classes. Is there any principle of humanity in the average public sentiment that looks consenting on while the kitchen girl, whose Sunday rest rarely covers more than four hours, begins her week-day's work at five and six in the morning and ends at eight at night? Surely, with all the labor to better human conditions, in which this noble army of women are engaged, this state of affairs should not be overlooked.

My idea is that we should hear far less of 'inefficient and faithless service,' would employers in domestic departments of labor conform to the laws that rule other avocations. The common cry is, 'My girl has no interest in her work.' What incentive can she have to interest? She has never known when her work is done. If, in contracting with her employer, the hours of labor comprising a day's and week's work were definitely agreed upon, and she were clear as to the fact that every hour over, whether on a week day or on a Sunday, was to count towards an extra week, self interest at least—and that kind of interest is usually no stronger than in the bosom of the employer—would quicken her energies and brighten her understanding into efficiency if any motive could. No employer has right to assume, because she has been gifted with larger intellectual opportunities, and is, in a sense, higher in the scale of humanity than is her employee, that the whole time, strength, and the very individuality of that employee, are to be absorbed in her service from the moment she enters her kitchen. Kitchen girls are human as well as other people.