Meaning
A woman who worked as a part-time or casual cleaner in houses, offices or public buildings.
Description
Charwomen were hired by the day or half-day to perform heavy cleaning work such as scrubbing floors, cleaning fireplaces and washing. Unlike live-in domestic servants they worked for multiple households and returned home each evening. The work was physically demanding and poorly paid, often taken up by older women or widows who needed income. In census records charwomen are sometimes listed simply as char or charring. The term daily woman was also commonly used.
Also Known As
Char, Daily Woman, Cleaning Woman
Commonly Found In
- Census Returns
- Parish Registers
- Poor Law Records
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