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

'My daughter learned to walk in a homeless shelter.'

As a struggling single mum, determined to keep a roof over her daughter's head, Stephanie Land worked for years as a maid, working long hours in order to provide for her small family. In Maid, she reveals the dark truth of what it takes to survive & thrive in today's inequitable society.
As she worked hard to climb her way out of poverty as a single parent, scrubbing the toilets of the wealthy, navigating domestic labour jobs as a cleaner whilst also juggling higher education, assisted housing, & a tangled web of government assistance, Stephanie wrote. She wrote the true stories that weren't being told. The stories of the overworked & underpaid.

Written in honest, heart-rending prose & with great insight, Maid explores the underbelly of the upper-middle classes & the reality of what it's like to be in service to them. 'I'd become a nameless ghost,' Stephanie writes. With this book, she gives voice to the 'servant' worker, those who fight daily to scramble & scrape by for their own lives & the lives of their children.

°°°

Stephanie Land is the author of the New York Times bestseller Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, & a Mother’s Will to Survive, called “a testimony…worth listening to,” by The New York Times & inspiration for the Netflix series Maid. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, & many other outlets. Her writing focuses on social & economic justice & parenting under the poverty line. She is a frequent speaker at colleges & national advocacy organizations. Find out more at @Stepville or Stepville.com.