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Show HOUSEWORK IS PUT ON BUSINESS BASIS Now York Maids Given 44-Hour Week and Eat Their Meals Out. New York Is employing business methods to solve Its problem of domestic do-mestic service. The long-viicntit place of tlie old-fashioned old-fashioned servant Is being taken by the ''home assistant" working n 44-hour 44-hour week and going mid coming to work each day us u stenographer or factory worker. She also buys her own meals nnd expects her employers to nddress her as "Mrs." or "Miss." The reluctance of women since the war to engage In housework and domestic do-mestic service ut wages which families of moderate mentis can pay led n group of New York women to Investigate the problem. They found thnt women revolted re-volted from domestic service because of tho long hours of labor, lack of definition defi-nition of their tnslis, uncertainty of their hours of recreation, and the feeling feel-ing that a certain soclnl stigma was attached to their positions. Tho result of the investigation was a determination to put housework on a business basis and tnako It as dignified digni-fied an ocupatlon as ofilce or factory. Tlio women who have been attracted to housowork on the home assistant basis recclvo 918 a week for a 44-hout week. They get Sundays and holidays or their equivalent tlmo off and a vacation vaca-tion of two weeks with pay at tho end of a year's work. They are paid overtime over-time at a specified rate. A weekly schedulo of household tasks In tho employer's home Is arranged ar-ranged that will keep tho worker busy uvei-y hour nho Is scheduled to work. Sho quits nt noon and goes out for her lunch. When tho day's work Is ended sho leaves for her own home. Tho domestic servant has becomo n business woman with tho samo freedom free-dom nnd Independence ns the rest of her sisters In tho business world. The success of the new venture led tho Investigators to orgnnlzo the bureau bu-reau of household occupations, which acts as a clcurtng-houso for tho home nsslstants nnd n plnco where both the workers and their employers, can have difficulties adjusted as they may arise. Mrs. Richard Boardmnn, Mrs. George D. Prntt, Mrs. Henry S. Patterson and Mrs. Roberts M. Walker nro among the women who aro actively engaged In the work. |