The girl is marooned, within full sight of others' happy life.

Even when kindness is her portion she is an outsider from the family circle.

Important as her function is in the life of the household, she is socially the lowest unit in it.
During the course of a great strike of mill operatives in Fall River, Massachusetts, a few years ago, a considerable group of weaver and spinner girls were induced, by members of the Women's Trade Union League, to take up domestic service until the close of the strike.

As the girls were in acute financial distress they agreed to try the experiment.

These were mostly American or English girls, some of them above the average of intelligence and good sense.
Housework with its great variety of tasks made severe draughts on the strength of girls accustomed to using one set of muscles.