Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive

As a low-wage worker and mother who must rely on government aid to survive, Stephanie Land encounters numerous stereotypes and situations in which she feels stigmatized. Choose at least three different instances in Maid that demonstrate the stigma against government aid recipients. Compare and contrast these prejudicial beliefs and suppositions against Land’s personal experiences. 

In Maid, Stephanie Land stresses that even if she had the money to hire a cleaner, she wouldn’t want to put another person through the physical strain and degradation of cleaning her home. She does note, however, that if she did hire a cleaner, she would be sure to “treat them like a guest, not a ghost. An equal” (155). Compare and contrast Land’s feelings against hiring a cleaner in Maid with a recent article she wrote for The Atlantic: “I Used to Clean Houses. Then I Hired a Maid.” Do you think Land’s feelings about hiring a cleaner have changed or evolved since the publication of Maid? 

As a domestic abuse survivor, Stephanie Land is very sensitive to the particular struggles that women face when homeless, impoverished, and without a support network. She repeatedly alludes to poverty and abuse as overlapping struggles, reflecting, “Recovering from the trauma was […] vital, maybe the most critical […] The months of poverty, instability, and insecurity created a panic response that would take years to undo” (35).