Response to "Maid to Order"

In her essay "Maid to Order," writer Barbara Ehrenreich analyzes the growing trend of outsourcing domestic work. She finds it curious that over the last 20 or 30 years, more and more people (and not just the ultra-wealthy) are seeking professional help for the cleaning of their own homes. Ehrenreich offers a summary of the "independent" and "corporate" cleaning industries as well as her own experiences working for one of these cleaning companies.

What I found most interesting about this piece was that although the opening of the essay and the title and subtitle both suggest that it will focus on gender inequalities, Ehrenreich's final conclusions about the impact on society of hiring maids has little to do with gender and much more to do with class. Ehrenreich even stresses that although professional cleaners are called "cleaning ladies," they can often be men as well (65). Thus, although it seems that Ehrenreich starts by stressing the importance of gender issues and feminism as it relates to her topic, it ends up playing out as an almost trivial issue. Rather, Ehrenreich concludes by warning readers that by hiring maids and other household helpers, the wealthier half of society is perpetuating the need for a "servant class" and that children are being raised with the callous attitude that there are "lower" people out there who exist to clean up after them. I agree with Ehrenreich's analysis and found it interesting how she developed this theme throughout the essay.