Precariousness as Normality

Mobilities and Changes of Position in Domestic Servants’ Personal Accounts (Austria, ca. 1900–1938)

Abstract

Abstract: At the beginning of the twentieth century, domestic servants’ frequent changes of position were widely debated and often perceived as an erosion of servants’ loyalty towards employers. For those working in the households of others, however, service was only one of several possibilities for finding a livelihood. In the course of their lives, women in particular alternated between service in private households and on farms, as well as undertaking other kinds of work. In doing so, they frequently changed their place of domicile, sometimes travelling over great distances. On the basis of autobiographical sources of women temporarily working as domestic servants, this contribution investigates representations of mobility and meanings assigned to changes of position.