Wanted, a Young Woman to Do Housework Business principles applied to housework

Wanted, a Young Woman to Do Housework: Business Principles Applied to Housework by C. Hélène Barker offers a provocative call to reorganize domestic labor by applying business efficiency and labor standards to the home. Written in the early 20th century, Barker’s essay-length study diagnoses why housework has been inefficient and undervalued, then outlines concrete reforms—living outside the place of employment, eight-hour workdays, six-day weeks, legal holidays, and overtime pay—framed through the lenses of economics, political economy, and domestic science. Part historical manifesto, part practical manual, the book compares household labor to factory and office work, explains recruitment difficulties for domestic employees, and provides sample eight-hour schedules for one to three workers. Barker blends social critique with pragmatic systems thinking, arguing that liberty and fairness in the household require the same legal and managerial standards applied elsewhere in industry. Ideal for readers of labor history, feminist scholarship, public policy, and those curious about domestic economy, this audiobook illuminates how business principles reshaped ideas about work—and why those ideas still matter for contemporary debates about care, labor rights, and home management.