As the century progressed, social reforms in both the United States and Britain turned to the rethinking service as a proper profession—which involved new ways of thinking about training. 

The failure to dignify and professionalize household labor is particularly hard on the unskilled girl of little education, wrote Ida Minerva Tarbell in her book, The Business of Being a Woman, published in 1921. Her weakness in trade is that she is a transient who takes no interest in fitting herself for an advanced position. 

(It was not the maid’s fault that she was a transient, and indeed, she might well have appreciated the opportunity to be eligible—and considered—for a more advanced post.)

Seeking to revive the reputation of service, some progressive thinkers referred to domestic workers as pioneers of the crusade—a crusade that would, in time, lead to more equitable conditions and opportunities for all. 

But along the way, she was seen as a transient worker, sooner an indentured laborer than a crusader or pioneer.