From the perspective of the entitled, servants were less important than the homes they served.

(The help was there to help. Period.) 

Which meant that they were frequently blamed for everything, from broken dishes to kitchen kerfuffles to late deliveries, slow traffic, even inclement weather. 

An ad for floor wax testifies to this social and material imbalance. 

Nolabo was a floor polish intended to help the less experienced housemaid. The ad—which ran in numerous periodicals including Good Housekeeping during the 1920s—features an illustration of a maid, in uniform, tumbling down the stairs and breaking the china on her tray.

Don’t Blame the Girl! Get Nolabo. 

The problem is the slippery surface—not the maid’s likely broken neck. The concern here is for the floor—not for the maid. 

That material imbalance was everything.