Tobias Karlsson

Domestic service has historically been one of the commonest forms of employment for women. In this chapter, we pose the question whether paid jobs in domestic service offered any career opportunities for women. A point of departure for the chapter is the existence and possible meanings of various occupational titles in the sector, for example ‘servant’, ‘housemaid’ and ‘housekeeper’. Our investigations shows that there was no substantial difference between the two first-mentioned titles; the title ‘servant’ was basically replaced by the title ‘housemaid’. Housemaids and housekeepers were, however, two distinct groups in Gothenburg in the interwar period. The average housekeeper was older than the housemaid. Yet, the housekeeper did not earn more than the housemaid and the housekeeper were seldom the manager of a staff of servants. Housekeepers were more often replacing a housewife in the household of a single man. Thus, the labour market of female domestic servants in interwar Sweden offered few opportunities for upward social mobility.