Bibliography: leaves 257-269.This study investigated the historical and sociological significance of domestic service in Cape and Cape Town class relations. The forces which led to the present class structure with its particular colour and sexual division of labour, where the majority of domestic workers were and are Black women were examined. It was felt that an emphasis on women's oppression only would obscure a broader understanding of domestic service in a class society where domestic service has been a major component of class, colour and sex oppression. A class analysis was used which allowed questions of gender to be posed. An historical investigation was necessary to analyse changing class relations and changes in the groups predominating in domestic service. Census reports for the Cape and Cape Town were studied in order to construct a sociological "index" to the class structure. Although many people were incorporated into wage labour via domestic service, class position and the earliness of their incorporation into wage labour allowed many groups to move on to other types of employment. Those who predominated in domestic service were the most disadvantaged by their class, colour and gender. It was because of a demand for cheap Black, mostly male, labour that Black women became trapped in domestic service in the absence of other options for employment. Ruling class demands for a supply of cheap labour as well as measures to control this labour were investigated. The Masters and Servants Acts were major sources of control and were both class and colour biased. Since so many people were incorporated into wage labour via domestic service, domestic service has been a major component in establishing class domination and control. Furthermore, domestic workers were also subject to informal control from their employers. It was only towards the 1900s that explicit demands were made for female domestic workers in order to release male labour for other sectors of employment. By 1948, pressures were building up from the ruling class to introduce more stringent control over movement and this eventually led to extensions of pass laws after 1948. An attempt was made to elaborate on how domestic workers experienced their oppression (racist and sexist attitudes of employers were a part) and to draw a link between class and sex oppression. By the nature of the close contact between employer and employee, employers could exert a great deal of control over domestic workers' private lives and this control was often sexist. Limited material on resistance was found and this, together with the lack of options for other sources of survival, illustrated domestic workers' unique oppression
