The Gilded Age was a period marked by rapid industrialization, urban growth, and vast economic change in the United States. The expansion of the railroad, steel, oil, banking, and manufacturing industries created a new class of ultrarich millionaires, widening the gap between the richest and the poorest in the nation. At the same time, these booming industries required skilled labor forces to keep up with demand. This labor force created an opportunity for workers to join and work towards their common interests as labor unions. With the rise of labor unions came the rise of labor strikes, where a group of employees refuses to work until their demands are met for higher wages, better benefits, etc. The Gilded Age saw many labor strikes as they became a routine way for laborers to bargain for their rights. However, one sector of labor rarely had formalized strikes or even the collective bargaining power to do so. These were the men and women working as domestic, household laborers. Despite the power to hold massive labor strikes, there were individual and small collective actions taken.

Domestic staff—maids, cooks, laundresses, coachmen, and butlers—made up one of the largest categories of wage labor in the United States. Most were women, immigrants, or African Americans, and their work was often poorly paid, physically demanding, and governed by strict employer control. Their labor supported the lavish lifestyles of the elite, yet their working conditions were often harsh. Household staff typically worked long hours, lived in their employers’ homes, had little privacy, and were expected to be constantly available. Wages were low, and workers had few legal protections or avenues for advancement.

Unlike factory workers, domestic laborers worked in isolation rather than in large groups, making the collective action difficult. Employers demanded loyalty and framed their relationship like a “family,” to deter them from demanding better working conditions or higher wages. Despite these difficulties, household staff did organize and strike, mostly in larger cities. It was in these cities that those in household positions could get better jobs in factories or shops, creating a servant shortage and giving the current staff leverage to use against their employers.

One of the most common ways to protest was in a walkout strike, in which a large number of domestic workers would quit or refuse to work at the same time unless conditions improved. The most common demands were better wages, reasonable time off, or the right to live off the owner’s property. This was commonly referred to as the “servant problem” in newspapers and literature of the era, where the elite lamented their fears that workers were becoming too independent and how it was difficult to find good staff.

The article below is a great example of domestic labor strikes occurring in Newport, RI, in 1902. It mentions multiple strikes at different “villas” (i.e. mansions) where servants walked out. The article mentions a Mr. E.J. Berwind, owner of one of the homes. Edward Julius Berwind was an American coal industrialist and co-founder of Berwind-White Coal Mining Company, and his home was The Elms, one of the larger Newport, RI, mansions, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.