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 In
the Middle Ages the workforce was mostly made up of female slaves, servants
and free women who, unable to find better employment possibilities, would go
working at well-to-do families.
Female slaves would be probably given the hardest works, even if all the
housework like getting wood and fire, looking after children and
accompanying the mistress were equally divided between servants and slaves,
although the economic treatment was different. Employment, differently from
some other works, was only the result of an oral agreement.
All this made domestic occupation absolutely precarious and subject to the
will of masters, who could dismiss their servants whenever they wished,
without reason nor notice.
The wage, low indeed, was divided into two parts, one made up of money and
the other of commonly used wares: clothes, shoes, board and lodging, which
in the majority of cases consisted of a straw mattress and the leftovers of
everyday meals.
The wage was minimal, for instance, towards the end of the 13th century a
pair of shoes cost a female servant about one and half working month, and,
moreover, master seldom paid regularly and generally made down payments only,
giving the left part after many working years and even at the moment of
dismissal.
A life of hard work among abuses and humiliations was shared by women of
different origins: some of them came from the countryside, other from towns
and other had blood ties with the family. Finally, sometimes, illegitimate
daughters born from the master and his female servant would remain in their
father’s house as maids. At well-to-do families not only adult women, but
also female children were sent to work to get a modest dowry or just to have
a mouth less to feed. Given to the master, they could leave his house only
at the moment of their marriage, when they would have received the reward
for their working years. To overcome the mistrust of their masters, who
generally considered female servants as thieves and immoral, women had to
prove to be strong, attentive to the care of their own body , honest and
serious. Notwithstanding the demand for seriousness, they often had to yield
to the desires of their master and also of his sons and friends. The
consequences of such affairs obviously fell just upon the woman, who, chased
away from the house and deprived of her support, was forced to leave her
child in the town hospital for abandoned children or in her master’s house.
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