Butler: Difference between revisions
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|Corporate Butler - Sebastian Hirsch.jpg|A "rent-a-butler" in a corporate setting. | |Corporate Butler - Sebastian Hirsch.jpg|A "rent-a-butler" in a corporate setting. | ||
|Butler Rick Fink.jpg|A butler (Rick Fink) folding a shirt. | |Butler Rick Fink.jpg|A butler (Rick Fink) folding a shirt. | ||
| | |Richard McIntosh, Paul Mrus and Jeff Murray during their butler training at the Rosewood hotel.jpg|Hotel butlers-in-training arranging robes to lay over a bed. | ||
|Elizabeth Camille by Peter Rae.jpg|A female butler in Australia.<ref name="moveoverjeeves2">{{cite journal | author=James Woodford| title=Move over, Jeeves, a new breed of butler is working her way up| journal=The Sydney Morning Herald| year=2007-08-13| url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/04/1033538773717.html}} [http://www.webcitation.org/5R4MfrgUq Archived by WebCite®.]</ref>}} | |Elizabeth Camille by Peter Rae.jpg|A female butler in Australia.<ref name="moveoverjeeves2">{{cite journal | author=James Woodford| title=Move over, Jeeves, a new breed of butler is working her way up| journal=The Sydney Morning Herald| year=2007-08-13| url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/04/1033538773717.html}} [http://www.webcitation.org/5R4MfrgUq Archived by WebCite®.]</ref>}} | ||
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Revision as of 01:19, 21 April 2009
The modern butler
Beginning around the early 1920s, employment in domestic service occupations began a sharp overall decline in western European countries, and even more markedly in the United States. Even so, there were still around thirty thousand butlers employed in the United Kingdom by World War II. As few as one-hundred were estimated to remain by the mid-1980s.[1] Social historian Barry Higman argues that a high number of domestic workers within a society correlates with a high level of socio-economic inequality. Conversely, as a society undergoes levelling among its social classes, the number employed in domestic service declines.[2]
Following varied shifts and changes accompanying accelerated globalisation beginning in the late 1980s, overall global demand for butlers since the turn of the millennium has risen dramatically. According to Charles MacPherson, vice chairman of the International Guild of Professional Butlers, the proximate cause is that the number of millionaires and billionaires has increased in recent years, and such people are finding that they desire assistance in managing their households. MacPherson emphasises that the number of wealthy in China has particularly increased, creating in that country a high demand for professional butlers who have been trained in the European butlering tradition.[3] There is also increasing demand for such butlers in other Asian countries, India, and the petroleum-rich Middle East.[4] [5]
Higman additionally argues that the inequality/equality levels of societies are a major determinant of the nature of the domestic servant/employer relationship.[6] As the twenty-first century approached, many butlers began carrying out an increasing number of duties formerly reserved for more junior household servants. Butlers today may be called upon to do whatever household and personal duties their employers deem fitting, in the goal of freeing their employers to carry out their own personal and professional affairs. Professional butler and author Steven M. Ferry states that the image of tray-wielding butlers who specialise in serving tables and decanting wine is now anachronistic, and that employers may well be more interested in a butler who is capable of managing a full array of household affairs—from providing the traditional dinner service, to acting as valet, to managing high-tech systems and multiple homes with complexes of staff. Whilst in truly grand houses the modern butler may still function exclusively as a top-ranked household affairs manager,[7] in lesser homes, such as those of dual-income middle-class professionals,[8] they perform a full array of household and personal assistant duties,[9] including mundane housekeeping.[10] Butlers today may also be situated within corporate settings, embassies, cruise ships, yachts, or within their own small "Rent-a-Butler" business or similar agency.[11]
Along with these changes of scope and context, butlering attire has changed. Whereas butlers have traditionally worn a special uniform that separated them from junior servants, and although this is still often the case, butlers today may adorn more casual clothing geared for climate, while exchanging it for formal business attire only upon special service occasions. There are cultural distinctivenesses, as well. In the United States, butlers may frequently adorn a polo short and slacks, while in Bali they typically wear sarongs.[12]
In 2007, the number of butlers in the United Kingdom had risen to an estimated 5,000.[13]
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- ↑ J. Lee (1988). "Steady, Jeeves—you've got company!". U.S. News & World Report 104 (17).
- ↑ Higman, Barry (2002). Domestic Service in Australia. Melbourne University Publishing. ISBN 0522850111.
- ↑ Scott Simon (10 Feb 2007). By Jeeves, We're Having a Butler Shortage—Interview with Charles MacPherson (Streaming Audio). Weekend Edition Saturday. NPR News. Retrieved on 2007-08-13. Also see Sheelah Kolhatka, "Inside the Billionaire Service Industry". The Atlantic, Sept 2006, 97-101. Archived by WebCite®.
- ↑ See for example Chadha, Monica. "Royal tips for Indian butlers", BBC News, 17 Feb 2003. Available online. Archived by WebCite®.
- ↑ "Butlers: A Jeeves of my very own", The Daily Telegraph, 15 Nov 2007. Available online. Archived by WebCite®.
- ↑ Higman (2002).
- ↑ Ferry, Steven M. Butlers & Household Managers: 21st Century Professionals. BookSurge Publishing, 14. ISBN 1591093066.
- ↑ "Butlers: A Jeeves of my very own", The Daily Telegraph, 15 Nov 2007. Available online. Archived by WebCite®.
- ↑ William Loeffler (15 April 2007). "The butler does it". The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Lifestyle.
- ↑ James Woodford (2007-08-13). "Move over, Jeeves, a new breed of butler is working her way up". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived by WebCite®. Elizabeth Camille, a butler in Sydney, states, "I still make beds, clean toilets and peg out washing.... It's not all as glamourous as people perceive it to be." Additionally see "Desperately seeking Jeeves", The Globe and Mail (Canada), 20 July 2007. Lynda Reeves, president of the Toronto-based House & Home Media, says that the term "butler" today is just "a pretentious name for a housekeeper".
- ↑ Jones, Harvey. "More money than time? Rent a butler". The Independent (UK), 15 Dec 2001. Available online. Archived by WebCite®. Also see http://www.rentabutler.de and http://www.rentabutler.nl/.
- ↑ Patrao, Michael. "The alter ago of Jeeves". The Deccan Herald, 27 July 2007. Available online. Archived by WebCite®.
- ↑ Sapstead, David. "Shortage of Butlers Has World's Wealthy Facing a Crisis", New York Sun, 30 May 2007. Available online. Archived by WebCite®.
- ↑ James Woodford (2007-08-13). "Move over, Jeeves, a new breed of butler is working her way up". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived by WebCite®.