Why Irish Became Domestic and Italians and Jews Did Not

The author is interested on why the Irish were able to become domestics at their employer’s houses but Italians and Jews failed to do so. There are a variety of evidences why this segregation of jobs happened. To begin with, most of the Irish women were unmarried and they were not attached to their families while the Italians and Jews rarely migrated unless preceded by their husbands or families. So for these Irish women impoverished and isolated, domestic works appeared suitable for them which provided them with shelter and food. The other reason was that many Irish women immigrants around 1900 of about 40% were classified as servants as they had no occupation. Some of the technical terms used by the author; • Indoctrinate – to brainwash, to offer biased teaching • Regimen – an orderly government or administration • Capitalism –this refers to a socio-economic system that is based on private ownership of capital • Feudalism – social system that is based on a personal ownership of a resource • Nomenclature – set of rules used in forming names or certain terms What was not clear in the reading was how and why many Irish women migrate alone, what about their husbands because some were married.