The Irish Bridget: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930

The Irish Bridget: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930
ISBN-10
0815652674
ISBN-13
9780815652670
Category
Social Science
Pages
232
Language
English
Published
2014-06-05
Publisher
Syracuse University Press
Author
Margaret Lynch-Brennan

Description

Many of the socially marginalized Irish immigrant women of this era made their living in domestic service. In contrast to immigrant men, who might have lived in a community with their fellow Irish, these women lived and worked in close contact with American families. Lynch-Brennan reveals the essential role this unique relationship played in shaping the place of the Irish in America today. Such women were instrumental in making the Irish presence more acceptable to earlier established American groups. At the same time, it was through the experience of domestic service that many Irish were acculturated, as these women absorbed the middle-class values of their patrons and passed them on to their own children. Drawing on personal correspondence and other primary sources, Lynch-Brennan gives voice to these young Irish women and celebrates their untold contribution to the ethnic history of the United States. In addition, recognizing the interest of scholars in contemporary domestic services, she devotes one chapter to comparing "Bridget’s" experience to that of other ethnic women over time in domestic service in America.

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