Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive

Stephanie Land’s memoir Maid describes supporting her daughter and herself, as they slip through the (massive) cracks of our social services.

Some of her experiences were familiar to me, like the kind of part-time job that gives you 20ish paid hours, on a rotating, last-minute schedule that requires 40 or more hours of availability. Or 2 hours of work, 40 minutes away. Or 2 hours of work, and then an unpaid hour waiting for the next client, and then another paid hour. (Oh, wait, that last one might be about my own tutoring experience, not about this book at all.) Anyway, a lot of this is unpleasantly familiar to our generation.

When low-wage workers complain about these conditions, republicans are quick to suggest getting a better job, as if there are loads of well-paid jobs just sitting empty because it hasn’t occurred to dumb poor people to look for them. Why don’t they just work harder and move up? BOOTSTRAPS!!! Never mind that the people preaching the doctrine of hard work are the same ones who think hiring at 35 hours/week to avoid paying for health insurance is just a good business sense from the valued and valuable Job Creators.

But some of this was totally unfamiliar. Land had a daughter with an unreliable boyfriend, and then then left him when unreliable became abusive. (Quick reminder that the birth control pill is 99% effective with perfect use, and that 99% is not 100%. A young woman could be doing everything “right” and still get pregnant.) (Also, condoms break.) So for most of the book, she’s looking for a safe home and regular hours to arrange childcare.  In a reasonable society, these shouldn’t be difficult tasks, but of course without money, a partner, or other resources, it’s almost impossible.   Getting reliable childcare and trying to get her daughter’s father to pay his share become regular themes in this book.

As a maid, she’s working a dirty, physically demanding job, while driving long distances between houses.  I’d recommend this for readers of Hand to Mouth and Nickled and Dimed, but in addition to the poverty math and commentary on the complete freaking nightmare of hanging on in capitalist dystopia, Land notices her clients’ houses. She cleans for all different types of (wealthy) people, whether illness or business or other reasons have led them to hire someone to pick up after them. She notes the state of a marriage or a family from the state of a house, in vignettes that are alternately depressing and encouraging.