The author is assistant professor in the department of anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Introduction Gender roles are not given, but made as a result of men's and women's changing social and economic experiences. If women are domestic by nature then, certainly, nature itself is constructed. The case of domestic service, through time and across cultures, shows quite clearly that men and women have passed in and out of this occupation depending on time, place and economic circumstances. The division of labour is social. How, when and why its slots are differentially allocated to the two sexes become issues for investigation. The case of Zambia provides an interesting setting in which to explore these questions. For the entire colonial period in that country, domestic service remained almost exclusively a male preserve. Today, the great majority of servants continue to be men, although women have entered the occupation in growing numbers since independence in 1964. Here I seek to clarify why domestic service persists with these peculiar gender dynamics in Zambia. My article is based on extensive research that seeks to explain the continuities and changes within this occupation in terms of race, gender and class from the turn of the century to the present. To explore these questions, I have used historical and economic sources as well as life history data, sample surveys and participant observation. I begin with brief remarks on the gender division of labour in domestic service, both historically and cross-culturally. Then follows a discussion of continuities and changes within domestic service in Zambia after independence. I finally examine women's gradual entry into paid domestic work and some of the consequences of this change for men and particularly women servants.