THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BLACK FEMALE DOMESTIC SERVANTS AND THEIR WHITE FEMALE EMPLOYERS

This study is an examination of the dynamics of the relationship between black female domestic servants and their white female employers. The focus is on patterns of behavior and the meanings of these patterns to the women themselves and the role of domestic service within the social structure.;It was found that the relationship is essentially one of psychological exploitation and that this exploitation has the two functions of (1) affording the employer the self-enhancing benefits and satisfactions that emanate from having the presence of an inferior and (2) validating the lifestyle, class and racial attitudes and social world of the employer--thereby providing ideological support for the economically and racially stratified society in which she lives. The two clusters of behavior that form the core of this psychological exploitation are the various deference rituals and the expressions of maternalism. A corollary of maternalistic behavior is the encouragement of evidence of inferiority from domestics (inferiority in her material conditions, her intelligence, her appearance and, sometimes, her character). For this purpose, black women might be particularly useful because racial stereotyping supports belief in her inferiority in all of these areas.;Additionally it was found that domestic servants are often treated as invisible, as non-persons and as less than human. While the phenomenon of domestics' identifying with employers was lacking, their extreme consciousness of the Other was not. And ressentiment was present, to some degree, in all domestics.;The findings illustrate that the dynamics within the relationship are an important part of what has made the occupation of domestic service a conservative element in the hierachical social systems in which it has existed. The deference rituals, maternalistic behaviors and demands for evidence of inferiority all function to confirm the superiority of the employer, to suggest that entire categories of people are inferior, and to therefore provide ideological justification for systems which institutionalize inequality.;The three main sources of data were primary and secondary literature on domestic servitude throughout history and the world, interviews with twenty domestics and twenty employers, and six months of participant observation as a domestic worker.