Domestic service on three Greek islands in the later 19th and early 20th centuries

Anthropological studies of Greece repeatedly disparage female employment, especially of single females outside the parental household. That was not the case on the Cycladic islands of Mykonos and Syros and the Aegean island of Hios. Interviews with elderly islanders elucidate the pre-World War II situation. Nineteenth-century manuscript census returns for the two Cycladic islands indicate earlier patterns and possible continuities. Yet oral interviews are much more revealing than printed sources. Of the many women-single or married-engaged in cash-earning employment within the household a significant percentage were employed in domestic service. Domestic service usually involved single females who either moved within the island, to Hermoupolis, or to Athens or Istanbul. Before the girl departed from her household of origin, her parents (most likely her mother) had made the arrangements. Apart from alleviating household poverty, the most common purpose for sending single girls into domestic service was to enable them to amass enough cash to purchase houses, which would constitute the major part of their dowries. Thus, employment in general and domestic service specifically delayed their marriages while enhancing their dowries.