Butler

The modern butler

Beginning around the early 1920s, employment in domestic service occupations began a sharp overall decline in western European countries, and even more markedly in the United States. Even so, there were still around thirty thousand butlers employed in the United Kingdom by World War II. As few as one-hundred were estimated to remain by the mid-1980s. Social historian Barry Higman argues that a high number of domestic workers within a society correlates with a high level of socio-economic inequality. Conversely, as a society undergoes levelling among its social classes, the number employed in domestic service declines.

Following varied shifts and changes accompanying accelerated globalisation beginning in the late 1980s, overall global demand for butlers since the turn of the millennium has risen dramatically. According to Charles MacPherson, vice chairman of the International Guild of Professional Butlers, the proximate cause is that the number of millionaires and billionaires has increased in recent years, and such people are finding that they desire assistance in managing their households. MacPherson emphasises that the number of wealthy in China has particularly increased, creating in that country a high demand for professional butlers who have been trained in the European butlering tradition. There is also increasing demand for such butlers in other Asian countries, India, and the petroleum-rich Middle East.

Higman additionally argues that the inequality/equality levels of societies are a major determinant of the nature of the domestic servant/employer relationship. As the twenty-first century approached, many butlers began carrying out an increasing number of duties formerly reserved for more junior household servants. Butlers today may be called upon to do whatever household and personal duties their employers deem fitting, in the goal of freeing their employers to carry out their own personal and professional affairs. Professional butler and author Steven M. Ferry states that the image of tray-wielding butlers who specialise in serving tables and decanting wine is now anachronistic, and that employers may well be more interested in a butler who is capable of managing a full array of household affairs—from providing the traditional dinner service, to acting as valet, to managing high-tech systems and multiple homes with complexes of staff. Whilst in truly grand houses the modern butler may still function exclusively as a top-ranked household affairs manager, in lesser homes, such as those of dual-income middle-class professionals, they perform a full array of household and personal assistant duties, including mundane housekeeping. Butlers today may also be situated within corporate settings, embassies, cruise ships, yachts, or within their own small "Rent-a-Butler" business or similar agency.

Along with these changes of scope and context, butlering attire has changed. Whereas butlers have traditionally worn a special uniform that separated them from junior servants, and although this is still often the case, butlers today may adorn more casual clothing geared for climate, while exchanging it for formal business attire only upon special service occasions. There are cultural distinctivenesses, as well. In the United States, butlers may frequently adorn a polo short and slacks, while in Bali they typically wear sarongs.

In 2007, the number of butlers in the United Kingdom had risen to an estimated 5,000.

© Photo: Josephine Ive Butlering after the British prototype has dispersed widely. Depicted here is a butler in Singapore.     © Photo: Josephine Ive A butler serving on a private yacht in Australia.     © Image A butler serving vacationers aboard the cruise ship Queen Victoria.     © Photo: ButlerForYou.com A "rent-a-butler" in a corporate setting.     © Photo: www.butler-valetschool.co.uk A butler (Rick Fink) folding a shirt.     © Photo: Louie Favorite/AJC Hotel butlers-in-training arranging robes to lay over a bed.     © Photo: Peter Rae / Sydney Morning Herald A female butler in Australia.