Chapter Two: Scrubbing in Maine (pages 51-120) – The Nature of Business

Being a rather professional person with a strong moral code, Ehrenreich would not put a person into a degrading situation if she could prevent it. Naturally, this belief comes into conflict with the nature of a maids job since they are constantly put into contact with chemicals and other occupational hazards that rapidly wear away their health. Additionally, her rejection of hiring a maid(s) was caused by her mothers belief that “a self-cleaned house was the hall-mark of womanly virtue.”(91) Based upon these beliefs, Ehrenreich thought that hiring a person to clean up her messes was simply wrong and “repugnant”. To her, hiring a maid almost sounds like it would be …show more content…
As a matter of employment a maids job isn't really different when compared to that of the grocery store clerk she buys meat from, or the mechanic that maintains her car, or the maids that clean her office space. They are all similar since they include paid labor, long working hours, and little appreciation. With this in mind the defining factor between her relationship with these professions is not the labor, but the level of contact she has with their different employees. As a consequence, the major separating factor between her relationships with these different professions is the level of intimacy between herself and their respective laborers. A maid would penetrate every nook and cranny or her personal life, while her relationship with her mechanic, grocery store clerk, and office maid are distant and impersonal. Based upon Ehrenreich's writing her home is her families sanctuary and should not be intruded upon. With this understanding in mind, if Ehrenreich employed the services of a maid her relationship with them would almost be too personal. Another separating factor is the moral nature of Ehrenreich's relationship with these groups. As mentioned above she did not believe that the conditions maids were subjected to on a daily basis were morally correct. However, since she did not mention anything about the other professions whose services she