Please be my maid, I don't know how to clean!

In the article, “Maid to Order”, the author Barbara Ehrenreich mentions that “fewer Americans know how to clean” and that is why they decide to hire a maid; I laughed a little when I read this statement. How can you not know how to clean?

As the article mentions, housework is more commonly being outsourced by wealthy women who do not have the time or knowledge for cleaning. I feel this is true, but also, today’s world has modernized so much and having maids has been made into a commodity that hurts you in the end. Yes, a maid service provides many immigrants with employment, but it also deprives women and kids from the practical knowledge of cleaning up after themselves. Ehrenreich states, “children raised in the servant economy… are bound to grow up as domestically incompetent”, which to me is outrageous because they are missing out on life skills. I believe more and more people are growing up as “domestically incompetent” because cleaning has become widely known as a menial job performed mainly by lower class third world immigrants. In this article, Ehrenreich opens the doors to a view and recognition of the “economically unequal culture” we have all been socialized in to.

As I went through my day, I was reminded of this article when I cooked my own meals, did my loads laundry, and washed the dishes. I don’t need anyone to do it for me because I was taught growing up that I wasn’t going to have anyone follow me around to pick up after me. I guess it all depends on how you were raised; I come from a Mexican-American family where many of my female family members began in a domestic employment when they immigrated to the United States. So, coming from a family history of low levels of education, I have been often “warned” that I will end up with a low-paying, difficult domestic job if I don’t continue and try hard with school. This point was made in the reading, and I completely agree that it might be the #1 reason parents use as warning to their kids; cleaning, domestic jobs have become interconnected with a low status and “scumball” stereotypes thanks to social constructions.