Weighing in (wearily) on OJ’s comments on cleaners. Hard to imagine him making similar comments about a role like handyman (”these middle class men are so selfish for employing a man to do work they should be doing themselves!“)

Assumption seems to be that cleaning is not really respectable work, not something someone might choose to do for a living and might take pride in. Handyman = a real job, whereas a cleaner is... what? An embarrassment?

My parents employ a cleaner who is excellent at her job and so able to charge £20 an hour and get a whole house done in 5 hours. She’s home by 2:30pm every day, leaving everything sparkling. She has a loyal customer base because she deserves it.

This is usually the point where people say “oh and we love her! She‘s such an angel! We couldn’t live without her!”

No, she’s a professional. I do like her very much, incidentally, because she’s a lovely woman. But she provides a service to a high standard and is paid for it.

Cleaning is real work and should be given the same respect and fair pay and conditions as any other kind of work.

Just because it’s work traditionally associated with women doesn’t make that any less true.