Margaret Powell (1907-1984)
Margaret Powell was born in 1902, in Hove. Her mother was employed in domestic service before she was married, and her father was a painter and decorator. Margaret was the second eldest of seven children. Her childhood was relatively happy; she recounts having felt loved and cared for by her parents. However, her youth was defined by the typical scenario of material deprivation, which determined so many working-class lives at the time. Her family often had to rely on charity to survive. She recounts going to the soup kitchens with her father to get a good meal, and accompanying her mother to the local council to plead with them for a new pair of shoes as her own solitary pair had holes in them. At the age of 14, Margaret wins a scholarship, and she momentarily entertains the idea that she might become a teacher. But, as her family would not be able to support her while she did her training, economic realities actually prevent this from happening. This illustrates the usual scenario of intelligent young women who are too poor to capitalize on it. Similarly, Lavinia Swainbank in her own autobiography attests that passing the 11 plus exam was just a matter of pride of achievement, it never got you anywhere, and that ‘money alone was the key to success’.
After leaving school, Margaret works in a laundry for a brief time; until she is 15 when she is fired, apparently because she is due a pay rise and there were plenty of other desperate younger women to take her place. Faced with few other options, Margaret decides to go into domestic service, and she has little trouble in obtaining a position as a kitchen maid in a household in Hove. Her father transports her belongings to her new home in a wheelbarrow. From the beginning, Margaret is overwhelmed by feelings of suffocation and imprisonment. Her new mistress presents her with a lengthy schedule of household duties, a maid’s uniform and a list of strict rules to which Margaret must adhere. She badly wants to go home but resigns herself to her unfortunate situation. However, Margaret never relinquishes to the oppressive forces which surround her, or accepts her lot in life, as good servants were meant to do. She evidently had a desire to learn and improve herself. This is demonstrated in the way she never stays in one position for very long. After a year of working in Hove, and against her mothers wishes, she decides to take her chances in London. She later lies about her age so she can get a position as a cook and subsequently, until she becomes proficient, she blags her way through mealtimes by looking up recipes in a cook book. At a later date, she purposely takes up temporary positions so she can see how different households operate.
Through Margaret’s many observations, we get an insight into domestic service, and the gradually changing face of it, around the beginning to the mid-nineteenth century: the hard work and long hours; the lack of privacy and freedom; the often terrible conditions in which servants were expected to live and work; the often ambivalent relationships between masters and servants; the stigma and low status afforded to servants by both their employers and wider society, and the basic difficulties young women in domestic service had in finding a husband. What does come across significantly in Margaret's autobiography is a sense of the differences between, and the segregation, of the classes. To such an extent that the masters not only live in a separate world to their servants, but they are intrinsically different beings from them: moreover; the servants are inferior or sub-beings. Although Margaret does not condemn her employers in an overtly political socialist way, on occasions we get an impression of her outrage and resentment at the inequality of it all, and a sense of her underlying conviction that something is not right. Throughout, Margaret demonstrates that she has initiative, resourcefulness and a will of her own; and that in spite of everything she is master of her own destiny. Evidently, domestic service was just a means to an end until she fulfilled her main ambition in life, which was to find a suitable man and get married.
After leaving school, Margaret works in a laundry for a brief time; until she is 15 when she is fired, apparently because she is due a pay rise and there were plenty of other desperate younger women to take her place. Faced with few other options, Margaret decides to go into domestic service, and she has little trouble in obtaining a position as a kitchen maid in a household in Hove. Her father transports her belongings to her new home in a wheelbarrow. From the beginning, Margaret is overwhelmed by feelings of suffocation and imprisonment. Her new mistress presents her with a lengthy schedule of household duties, a maid’s uniform and a list of strict rules to which Margaret must adhere. She badly wants to go home but resigns herself to her unfortunate situation. However, Margaret never relinquishes to the oppressive forces which surround her, or accepts her lot in life, as good servants were meant to do. She evidently had a desire to learn and improve herself. This is demonstrated in the way she never stays in one position for very long. After a year of working in Hove, and against her mothers wishes, she decides to take her chances in London. She later lies about her age so she can get a position as a cook and subsequently, until she becomes proficient, she blags her way through mealtimes by looking up recipes in a cook book. At a later date, she purposely takes up temporary positions so she can see how different households operate.
Through Margaret’s many observations, we get an insight into domestic service, and the gradually changing face of it, around the beginning to the mid-nineteenth century: the hard work and long hours; the lack of privacy and freedom; the often terrible conditions in which servants were expected to live and work; the often ambivalent relationships between masters and servants; the stigma and low status afforded to servants by both their employers and wider society, and the basic difficulties young women in domestic service had in finding a husband. What does come across significantly in Margaret's autobiography is a sense of the differences between, and the segregation, of the classes. To such an extent that the masters not only live in a separate world to their servants, but they are intrinsically different beings from them: moreover; the servants are inferior or sub-beings. Although Margaret does not condemn her employers in an overtly political socialist way, on occasions we get an impression of her outrage and resentment at the inequality of it all, and a sense of her underlying conviction that something is not right. Throughout, Margaret demonstrates that she has initiative, resourcefulness and a will of her own; and that in spite of everything she is master of her own destiny. Evidently, domestic service was just a means to an end until she fulfilled her main ambition in life, which was to find a suitable man and get married.
