If they were successful, they could work for many years to end up in an asylum after losing their strength. If they were less fortunate, they ended up in the streets as prostitutes after a few months. Over 95% of them did not start a family. Their remuneration was usually left over from the hosts' meals and a sleeping corner in the kitchen.
In the interwar period and earlier, service in large Polish cities accounted for over a dozen percent of the total number of employees. The servants' work was so cheap that even not very wealthy families could afford it. Most often, women were not paid in cash.
Usually they did not have their own room either - they would lie down in the kitchen after the "state" had gone to sleep. They ate the same as the hosts, but in the form of leftovers after dinner . If they could take a bath, it was in the water that was left over from the "state" bath. They had no right to privacy, their own lives, free time - sometimes just a short day off. They also often did not have the right to their own name, because the neighbor already had some Marysia on duty, so they changed them .
The vast majority of servants came from the countryside, from families with too many "mouths to feed". What pushed them to serve in the city was necessity, pressure from their loved ones, or simple hope for a better life - or at least not to be hungry and not to have somewhere to sleep. In the countryside, service was also common, not only in manors . The wealthier peasants also had their farm-hands and servants for a bowl of soup.
Also read:Sex, drugs and all that jazz. Crazy 1920s in Poland
Marysia, Kasia, Pelasia
A girl who would come to town on duty, found herself in a completely alien and generally hostile environment. She had no idea how to function in it, often couldn't even read or write. The only chance for normal everyday life was to find good "states" who would treat her at least decently . But most of the time, she found her way to people who treated her badly.
"Marysia", "Kasia" or in Poznań "Pelasia" - as they were often called - when she lost her job or did not find one on time, she did not have a roof over her head. This moment often determined her further life. The employers were well aware of this and were willing to take advantage of the situation.
The servants worked from morning to night, usually with one afternoon off once a week . The existence of many families was based on their work. They cooked, cleaned, washed, shopped and looked after the children. They remained anonymous and usually underestimated.
The morality of the Dulski ladies
Gabriela Zapolska in "The Morality of Mrs. Dulska" described the relationship between the "state" and the maid Hanka. Dulska consciously turns a blind eye to her son's affair with the maid, because it is better that he is at home than he is to rummage around town.
It is better to have fun with Hanka than to use the services of prostitutes - a typical attitude of the housewives at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The bourgeoisie of that time was characterized by exceptional care for morality, piety, but mainly in relation to others, rarely to each other . A girl who had no acquaintance in the city was completely put at the mercy of the "state".
The servants worked from morning to night, usually with one afternoon off once a week.
Illegitimate pregnancy, whether with the master of the house, his son, or with a stranger, made the girl end up on the street. In this critical situation, she was completely on her own. Many girls tried to get rid of the problem somehow and have used the services of women who secretly terminate pregnancies - often with disastrous results.
This led to infanticide. And if the unwanted offspring were born, they were given to a shelter if possible. The mental state of such an experienced woman was also influenced by the feeling of guilt resulting from religious upbringing and social norms.
If not the service, it's the street
At the beginning of the 20th century, almost 60% of Warsaw prostitutes were recruited from former servants . It was a very numerous milieu:it is estimated that during the Second Polish Republic, about 25,000 girls and women were engaged in harlotry in Warsaw alone.
The supply of services was huge, the prices for them - very low. "Girl from the street" cost 1.5 zlotys, as much as, for example, 3 kilograms of onions or 25 cigarettes. Most of this modest salary was taken by the pimp . So the girls lived in dire poverty, but they had nowhere to go back.
Prostitution before and in the interwar period was primarily the result of poverty, as well as the relationship between the "state" and servants. Girls who, for various reasons, lost their jobs or could not find them, were sent to the streets. They became easy prey for various beaters and pimps. They could not count on any other help. Many of them were taken to brothels in Europe and South America. Trade in "live goods" was one of the Polish specialties of those times .
A performance of "Mrs. Dulska's Morality" at the Vilnius City Theater
In the first months of the existence of the Second Polish Republic, when the governments of Daszyński and Moraczewski introduced bold social reforms, attempts were made to solve the problem of hiring servants and granting them rights. There was not enough time. Successive governments and politicians (with the exception of socialists) were no longer interested in this problem. They also had servants, and such a system suited them very well. The imbalance in the relations between the "state" and their servants was deepened by the obligatory "service books". An unfavorable opinion meant that the girl had no chance of finding another job.
Read also:Murders, beatings, thefts - the dark activities of prostitutes in the interwar period
The situation of the service changed in the People's Republic of Poland, mainly because there was much less of it . Demand was much higher than supply, as the protagonist of the 1972 film "Wanted, Wanted", in which the main character, an art historian (Wojciech Pokora), makes a career as a housekeeper in a female disguise.