Labour migration of young women from the village to the capital in Bulgaria: A case study of woman servantry in Vakarel

Abstract

The article is devoted to the maiden servantry in Bulgaria – a relatively late social phenomenon, but with important cultural and social consequences. It is also an indicator of the early modernization of Bulgarian society in the first half of the twentieth century. Using the example of Vakarel in Middle Western Bulgaria, the authors define servantry as a social mediator, facilitating the spread of urban culture and European models in the Shopluk villages around the capital Sofia. The emergence and development of female servantry as an enduring and sustainable social practice charts a path of change in marriage strategies and family patterns in a small rural community and thus in society as a whole. Gradually, from an escape from the adverse socio-economic factors and the harsh life in the village, temporary employment as a servant in the home of a wealthy family in the big city became an important moment in the young girl's growth and socialization, a condition for successful realization of family strategies in the rural environment. As a social phenomenon, servanthood has remained positively valued in the collective memory of the locals as part of the oral stories told within the family.