評論
打印
Domestic work in the South
美國南方的家務
The Help, updated
升級的“幫傭”
Maids are no longer servants
幫傭不再是仆人
UNDER segregation, black women were so rigidly excluded from good jobs that 60% of those who were employed in 1940 worked as maids. With so few other choices, their wages were lousy and their white bosses could treat them abysmally. In Kathryn Stockett's novel “The Help”, set in the early 1960s, a black maid is fired for using an indoor toilet rather than braving a tornado to use the outhouse; her revenge, involving a chocolate pie, is not for the squeamish.
在種族隔離的時代，黑人婦女被嚴格地排除在好工作之外。在1940年，那些得到工作機會的有60%從事女傭的工作。由于幾乎沒有其他的選擇，他們的工資極低此外她們還可能遭受白人雇主的極壞對待。在凱瑟琳·斯多克特的小說《幫助》中，她講述了一個發生于上世紀60年代早期的故事。一個黑人女傭由于在龍卷風肆虐的時候使用了室內衛生間而不是世外衛生間而被解雇。她用一個巧克力派進行報復，這并不是由于她太過于生氣。
Times have changed. In 1935, six out of ten urban white families above the poverty line in the South had a full-time domestic servant, compared with under 20% in the North. Now hardly anyone does. People who want help with the housework typically hire cleaners for a few hours a week, not as live-in flunkeys with whom they pretend to have a warm relationship. A cleaner arrives, blitzes the house with a Hoover and various chemicals and drives to the next job. Employers are less likely to be paternalistic and more likely to be absent, since women now hold half the jobs in America.
如今時代變了。1935年，美國南方60%生活在貧困線以上的城市白人家庭雇傭一個全職女傭，北方的這一數據不足20%，如今幾乎沒有家庭這么做。人們若想請人幫助做家務往往會雇傭清潔工（或女傭）每周過來做幾個小時，而不是住家的那種穿著制服的女仆，雇主還得假裝與女傭之間保持熱情友好的關系。現在，一個保潔員匆匆趕來，以閃電戰的速度用胡佛吸塵器和各種化學清潔器打掃完一家然后快速趕到下一家。雇主也不似以前那樣那么大家長制并且更可能是不在家的，因為現在美國，女性頂起了職場的半邊天。
Thanks to labour-saving devices, maids are much more productive than in the old days. This is one reason why they earn far more, though they are still close to the bottom of the income scale. A typical Southern maid makes about 9.11 an hour, which is less than those in richer parts of the country. The metro area where the highest proportion of workers are maids is Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a popular resort.
幸虧有節省勞動力的電器設施，保潔人員現在的工作效率比以往高得多。這也是如今她們賺得更多的原因之一，盡管現在她們依然處于收入階層最底層。南方的保潔工人每小時賺9.11美元，這略微比那些富裕地區的工資略低。在超級大都市工資最高的保潔工人是在南卡羅來納州美特爾海灘這個備受歡迎的旅游勝地工作的人們。
The demography of domestic service has changed, too. Mamie Garrett, whose family has run mortuaries in Greenville, South Carolina since 1952, remembers when other black women had few options besides becoming “a domestic”, but has herself employed help at home for decades. Some 44% of cleaners in America are Hispanic. Dalsi Lopez, a Guatemalan who tidies posh apartments in Atlanta, says many Latinas become cleaners because poor English bars them from other jobs. Nationwide, 27% of maids are illegal immigrants, estimates the Pew Research Centre, a think-tank.
國內服務的人口統計學業發生了變化。瑪米·加勒特住在南卡羅來納州，她家自1952年就在格林威爾經營停尸間稱她依然記得當其他的黑人婦女除了當一個“家庭女傭”之外幾乎別無選擇時，她可以在自家的店里工作，一做就是幾十年。美國保潔工人中44%的人是西班牙裔。Dalsi Lopez是一個危地馬拉人在亞特蘭大整理豪華的公寓。他稱許多拉丁美洲人成為保潔工人是因為貧乏的英語水平成為他們尋找其他工作的障礙。皮尤研究中心這個智囊團估計在全國范圍27%的女傭是非法移民。
According to the American Cleaning Institute, an industry group, just 12% of Americans had a regular cleaner in 2008. Some budget-conscious families use websites such as Yelp and Angie's List to hire temporary help only when they need it. Those with a little more money may opt for a concierge service such as Girl Friday of Alabama. Girl Friday's clients, 85% of whom are white, pay the agency to pamper them. For 17-30 an hour, it will send someone to cook a delicious dinner for visiting in-laws, buy a present for Uncle Hank or book the family holiday. Its founder, Jasmine Allen, has six employees who do most of the dirty work and a smart new office in a tech hub in Birmingham.
根據美國清潔協會這個行業組織的資料，2008年僅有12%的美國家庭雇傭一個長期的保潔工人。一些有預算意識的家庭若需要保潔服務，會通過諸如Yelp and Angie's List這樣的網站雇傭臨時的保潔工人。星期五女孩這樣的服務網站的客戶85%是白人，他們付費給中介為他們找臨時保潔員。每小時只需付17至30美元就能叫來一個人幫他們做一頓美味的正餐或者幫助拜訪一位姻親或者為某位親戚買個禮物，抑或幫他們預訂一個家庭假期。該中介的創始人艾倫在伯明翰的科技港有一間大氣的新辦公室雇有六個吃苦耐勞不怕臟不怕累的員工。
Shelly Haines, a former teacher and pet baby-sitter in Miami, runs a firm called “Savvy Shelly” that caters to especially demanding customers. One called her late on a Sunday to ask her to send eggnog from a particular farm shop to Houston by overnight mail as a gift for a visiting brother. Another has her ensuring everything on board his boat is shipshape. Sometimes customers even want her to act “as some kind of therapist”, she sighs. The help can't answer every cry for help.
Shelly Haines居住在邁阿密，以前是老師，也做過兒童保姆，現在經營了一家公司名叫“通靈雪莉”專為高要求的客戶提供定制服務。某周天的傍晚有一位客戶打電話給她請她將一壇蛋酒從一個特定的農場連夜郵寄至休斯頓，這將是他們送給訪問的兄弟的回禮。另外一位客戶要求她確保他裝船的所有東西是井然有序整整齊齊的。她嘆氣道，有些客戶甚至讓她扮演某種臨床專家。幫工不是萬能的，他們不可能像超人那樣無所不能。
