Företagarhustrun och hushållets organisation

Abstract

The Wife of the Manager and the Household Organization

The Wife of the Swedish manager is an untold story in Business history. Yet she plays an important role as the mistress of the household, as well as a companion to her husband, the manager. This article discusses the wife’s attitude to housework and her relation to the domestic servants. The wife of the manager was seldom employed, nor did she have an income. She was an informal leader of the household. The home was her workplace, and a hierarchical organization, where she could use paternalistic tools to lead the servants. Her work as an informal leader helped her to gain personal control of the household. It was her task to instruct and control the servants. The wife was rarely involved in any practical housework. She could seldom cook dinner, nor did she clean the house. As a young girl she had often learnt the basic skills about housework. As a wife, her work was to use this knowledge, in order to maintain the harmony in the household. This was a complex task, as class tensions disrupted the relationship between masters and servants. Like her husband, the manager, the wife’s job was to create a loyal servant who obeyed her wishes. This was easier said than done, as the domestic servants never had a regulated working schedule, nor did they have any leisure time.