The great improvements needed in domestic service, observed one parlor maid, are the abolition of The Insurance Act ... and the abolition of caps. 

One of the foundations of the modern welfare state, The National Insurance Act of 1911 benefited workers, but at a cost: a percentage of their wages were drawn from their paychecks on a weekly basis. 

If mandatory insurance payments were unwelcome, the wearing of the dreaded cap was worse. On this topic there was enormous consensus (and a dizzying amount of literature). Some reported that they could not reliably put their capped heads outdoors without being called skivvy (a nasty slur for a scullery maid) or otherwise shamed by passersby. 

The parlor maid elaborates. 

I have heard several girls say that they wouldn’t mind going into service if they hadn’t to wear caps. 

Observes another: 

The dresses they didn’t mind, but the caps were generally referred to as the trademark of modern slavery. 

And finally: 

The cap has never made a bad girl good or a good girl better, notes a third. It is a badge of servitude.