first post with question

[living-to-read.livejournal.com]

this is my first post in this community and the occasion is a question that bumped into my mind while thinking about a plot line involving Bertie and Jeeves
the question is:
Does it exist a female equivalent of Jeeves, some female servant that takes care of a young (or even not young) rich woman?
The term that comes to mind is Governess (like Mary Morstan before marrying John Watson), but I'm not sure...
thanks

Comments

[chairman-wow.livejournal.com]

A ladies' maid, maybe? They'd be young women who served noble or very rich women - help them dress, serve them their food, and such. Though I don't know if they still had them at the time of Jeeves.
A Governess is someone who educates and chaperones a young lady, but she'd answer to that lady's parents/guardians, and not to her herself, I'd imagine.

[living-to-read.livejournal.com]

thanks.
Now it's getting clearer.

[captainpellew.livejournal.com]

Have you noticed Aunt Agatha's lady's maid? She looks quite as dour as her mistress, and doesn't really have any lines, just sorta stands behind her in her dressing room as Agatha rags on Bertie...

[anima-mecanique.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly certain the term is 'lady's maid' (governess, I believe, is for children). If the woman were not married, though, she would probably be with her family...you would have to have a single woman without much of a family to speak of to get the same situation as you have with Jeeves.

[living-to-read.livejournal.com]

I wonder if a rich widow may count as potential candidate.
Of course a rich widow may sink the plot line I have in mind, but not necessarily.

[anima-mecanique.livejournal.com]

Rich widow might actually work fairly well...although anyone who's no longer living with her own family for whatever reason but isn't married would probably be believable.

[anima-mecanique.livejournal.com]

Oh, also, I'm not sure about in Wodehouse's era, but at least in the Victorian era, it was common to require even adult unmarried women to have a male chaperone around, usually related...I'm not sure how that applies to the Wooster timeline, but it's something you might want to look into just in case.

[tuff-ghost.livejournal.com]

i'd say ladies' maid is the best equivalent. governess doesn't have the same hierarchical place as a valet, nor does she do the same thing. all she does is take care of very young children, and she answers entirely to their parents.

you must remember though that in jeeves' time and decades before there were very many more female servants than male ones, and they had a much worse lot. a ladies' maid would be "near the top of the chain" like a valet, but nevertheless her freedoms outside the household would be much fewer. she probably couldn't go out for drinks like jeeves does, or see plays, or anything like that.

[living-to-read.livejournal.com]

It's not what she can do outside the household the core of the matter.
It's more about the status quo inside the household and how to preserve it from an external attach involving Bertie and Jeeves in the process.
It's still an immature idea... When I'll have it more defined I'll be back with more details

[pet-lunatic.livejournal.com]

I'd agree with 'ladies' maid' but it was also quite common for wealthy women - especially older women - to have a 'companion', the same sort of thing but implying a closer connection. A companion was not necessarily a typical working class servant, but might be a middle class girl who's family had fallen on hard times, for example. A companion might do the same sort of things as a maid, but the term implies a greater freedom, higher status, etc, as well as different jobs. A companion might, for example, be largely employed to read or play the piano to their mistress, without performing the more rudimentary tasks of a maid.

[captainpellew.livejournal.com]

There is NO equivalent to Jeeves! Female or otherwise!

*falls to the floor and indulges in Jeevesworship*

[celbalrai.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read Othello?

Think Emilia to Desdemona - a friend, but paid.