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

Throughout Maid, Land examines the social stigma surrounding poverty and the subsequent psychological effects relating to this stigma. As a recipient of seven different kinds of government aid, she is obligated to maintain and submit detailed records of her finances and to balance appointments with several different social services offices. In transitional housing, she must undergo tedious and patronizing life skills training courses that presume poor people are unintelligent and ignorant, and don’t understand how to perform basic tasks such as laundry and cleaning. She must also frequently submit to random drug screenings (like ex-convicts in halfway homes). Land reflects that these forms of screening and behavioral regulations—and the distrust driving them—make her feel like a criminal. She writes, “Being poor, living in poverty seemed a lot like probation—the crime being a lack of means to survive” (8).

As a low-wage house cleaner, Land directly experiences this stigma in several ways. When cleaning the homes of clients, Land seldom has any face-to-face interaction and feels “invisible.” In addition to feeling socially isolated, Land struggles with the physical pain of her labor. The intense floor and surface scrubbing she performs results in back pain that she is financially unable to treat.