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Yesterday morning, out in the hallway of the hotel, a couple of maids were talking loudly back and forth. This morning, from behind my closed door, I again heard loud voices, one of which was male. That got me to wondering--is there a male counterpart for maid?
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Carpal Tunnel
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in "Upstairs, Downstairs" the male servants were footmen. a valet is a man's man.
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Carpal Tunnel
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And I guess nowadays both sexes would be referred to as housekeepers (cf 'flight attendants' or 'letter carriers').
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Carpal Tunnel
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Footmen clean houses? I guess the real point of my post was: ARE there men who clean buildings for a living? (I'm assuming that the male voice I heard was either a customer or a maintenance...man (speaking of stereotypes). Housekeeper would indeed cover both; but for the life of me, I could not think of a single instance that I had ever read about or heard of where hired housecleaning service was performed by a male. Certainly I can't think of a word that, in the way we know instantly what a maid does, would mean the same work but done by a man. Come to think of it, I've never known much about what a footman does other than help people in and out of carriages.
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Carpal Tunnel
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where hired housecleaning service was performed by a male
You used to could say the same thing about stewardesses
or nurses. The former needed a name change.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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We used to have a maid service in New Zealand where the usual term is "home help". The last one we had was a solo father. He was brilliant. Still called him the "home help", though.
- Pfranz
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Carpal Tunnel
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Re:Footmen clean houses?
Footmen started in ancient rome--where superstition had it to be bad luck to cross the threshold with your left foot...
(i think the superstition persisted, since we still have the expressions--starting off on the right foot and Putting your best foot forward and others)
the rich had servants (slaves)who opened the door for guests, and watched there feet..
when not doing that, i am sure they found other work for them to do. but the term footman remained-- and in Upstairs, Downstairs, one of the things the footman did was open the door, and usher guests into the house...
Re:ARE there men who clean buildings for a living?
maintenance..(men) are usually considered more skilled.. and are paid slightly higher wages.. it still very sexist. most maids/ and maintenance men are paid very low wages...by the time the maid have enough english and knowledge to know that they could be getting more as maintenance men, they have enough skills to move onto jobs that pay better -- the lowest level of maintenance man is a porter--who is often required to sweep and mop in public areas.
some will say that maintenance men do heavier work, but they obviously are the same people who have never turn a matress.. something maids are expected to do. (sometimes in pairs.. but who cares, turn a matress is heavy work.)
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addict
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addict
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You used to could say the same thing about stewardesses or nurses. The former needed a name change.
I have it on good authority, from a colleague who had some part of his medical training in the Phillipines, that, in a majority of missionary hospitals there, female nurses are called, 'Sisters' and the male nurses are, 'Brothers'.
And yes Jackie, it is indeed hard to conjure up a male version of a maid. It seems to me, that the closest term that could apply to both sexes, is as mentioned above, servant. I personally, hate that word; it is to do with all its connotations, I suppose. I have read of male servants or man-servants, but don't know of one specific word.
Housekeeper is somewhat more managerial isn't it? It isn't quite the nuts and bolts job of a maid. The male version would be a butler, I suppose. Which reminds me of a wonderful film, 'The remains of the day'. Marvellous film. The book is an engrossing read too.
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Carpal Tunnel
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missionary hospitals…'Sisters'…'Brothers'.
Sounds like medically trained nuns and monks(?) retaining their non-nurse titles.
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Carpal Tunnel
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RE: missionary hospitals…'Sisters'…'Brothers'.
Sounds like medically trained nuns and monks(?) retaining their non-nurse titles.
Could be... but in UK, nurses are so called Sister-- or they were. just as medical doctors and surgens are called mister.. (Mr. not Dr. as they are in US)
but most everyone knows the proper initals, tacked at the end of a name that mean Member of Royal College of Surgens, (yeah, i could have looked it up...but so can you)--something akin to US "board certified"-- where as in US, a goodly percent have no idea what board certified is.
a recent article about health care addressed nursing issues. some hospitals no longer identify Registered Nurses as R.N.'s, and many patients in hospitals are "treated" by health care aides with 4 to 6 weeks of training..
patients might call for a nurse, and get an aid, instead.
(fine of you just need the bedpan, but not so good if your i.v. is coming loose.)
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