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A Chinese amah (right) with a woman and her three children Joanna de Silva Two ayahs in British India with their charges. An amah (Portuguese: ama, German: Amme, Medieval Latin: amma, simplified Chinese: 阿妈; traditional Chinese: 阿 媽; pinyin: ā mā; Wade–Giles: a¹ ma¹) or ayah (Portuguese: aia, Latin: avia, Tagalog: yaya) is a girl or woman employed by a family to clean, look after ...
In Colonial India, a nanny was known as ayah, after aia, nurse, governess (in Portuguese). This term is presently part of the vocabulary of various languages of the Subcontinent, meaning also female servant or maid. [1] In Chinese she was an amah. [1] In the Dutch East Indies the household nanny was known as baboe. [citation needed]
A maid, housemaid, or maidservant is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era, domestic service was the second-largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. [1] In developed Western nations, full-time maids are now typically only found in the wealthiest households.
In 2015, the International Labour Organization (ILO), based on national surveys or censuses of 232 countries and territories, estimated the number of domestic workers at 67.1 million, [3] but the ILO itself states that "experts say that due to the fact that this kind of work is often hidden and unregistered, the total number of domestic workers could be as high as 100 million". [4]
A handmaiden (nowadays less commonly handmaid or maidservant) is a personal maid or female servant. [1] The term is also used metaphorically for something whose primary role is to serve or assist. [1] Depending on culture or historical period, a handmaiden may be of enslaved status or may be simply an employee. The terms handmaiden and handmaid ...
The occupation of lady's companion has been made obsolete in the United Kingdom and most other developed countries. This is primarily because upper-class women no longer primarily stay in the home, and also because of the many other employment opportunities afforded to modern women. [3]
A male figure comparable to the courtesan was the Italian cicisbeo, the French chevalier servant, the Spanish cortejo or estrecho. The courtesans of East Asia, particularly those of the Japanese empire , held a different social role than that of their European counterparts.
Other palace women became servants, singers or dancers. [188] The harem women could only be seen in public on a few ceremonial occasions; otherwise they were not allowed contact with the outside world and communicated with it through go-betweens in the form of old female palace women servants called ak yeay chastum. [188]