There is no real official reason but it's mainly because of the (old) British culture. Namely, butlers were/are servants in large households who tended to their employer's wishes.
Modern butling traces its history back to the English peasants who were brought into the castles to provide personal service to their Lords and Ladies 1,100 years ago. The line of service has continued and developed unbroken since.
There are over 12,215 butlers currently employed in the United States. 43.2% of all butlers are women, while 56.8% are men. The average butler age is 42 years old. The most common ethnicity of butlers is White (60.6%), followed by Hispanic or Latino (14.7%), Black or African American (10.0%) and Asian (7.1%).
Butler English, also known as Bearer English or Kitchen English, is a dialect of English that first developed as an occupational dialect in the years of the Madras Presidency in India, but that has developed over time and is now associated mainly with social class rather than occupation.
In Britain, the butler was originally a middle-ranking member of the staff of a grand household. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the butler gradually became the senior, usually male, member of a household's staff in the very grandest households.
Traditionally butlers would be male, housekeepers and ladies' maids would be female.
Domestic service dropped by more than half between 1940 and 1950. After the war, wages remained high. In a bid to sidestep labor laws, employers paid nannies and cleaners under the table instead of hiring servants full-time. Slowly, women began to take over housework themselves.
In Australia, the term House Manager or Residence Manager is interchangeable with Butler to eliminate gender and class connotations. The overriding responsibility of the Butler is to ensure the care and comfort of the Principals, meeting all their requirements and managing the household effectively on a daily basis.
There are quite some households – although nowhere near as many as years ago – that prefer a Traditional Butler. This could be a more traditional British family. But a traditional English Butler is also increasing in popularity by international families who aspire to a lifestyle of Britain in times like Downton Abbey.
an English occupational name that originally denoted a servant in charge of the wine cellar, from the Norman French word butuiller. It eventually came to be used to describe a servant of high responsibility in a noble household, mostly leaving behind its association with the supply of wine.
Australian Butlers offer a range of services including recruitment and placement of all residential and personal staff, property management for country houses and owners living overseas and fully staffed, luxury private residences for visitors.
Highly prized, female Butlers are able to fill many exciting opportunities often with an employer who feels more comfortable with a female in charge of their household or with the many middle eastern clients who for cultural reasons prefer a female Butler.
Employers generally prefer their butlers to be single. It is felt that butlers with wives can be torn between their loyalties towards their families and their master. A butler without any family commitments of his own is therefore able to devote himself entirely to the needs of the family he serves.
Most successful butlers are Swiss and Dutch (probably because of their language skills). The best butler school in the world is The International Butler Academy, located in a small village called Simpelveld in The Netherlands.
When it isn't, it's usually referring to a position that's higher up than a butler. In very large houses where there are multiple butlers, each one will likely be in charge of a different area of the house. The majordomo acts as the “head butler”, responsible for overseeing the whole house.
They do for themselves.
The Hollywood stereotype of the über-rich might have left you thinking billionaires don't do anything for themselves. They have dog walkers, maids, assistants, butlers, and drivers to take care of the monotonous chores of everyday life.
Today, Highclere is home to George Herbert and his wife Fiona, the 8th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon (Lord and Lady Carnarvon), owners of the 'real' Downton Abbey house.
Throughout its entire run, "Downton Abbey" employed historical consultants and drew on the family knowledge of series creator Julian Fellowes. Even so, it's a fictional series, with many "edits" to make a more dramatically compelling and relatable story.
All the kinds of things you see in Downton Abbey, I did all of that,” he said. The jobs of many of the 1920s staff at Highclere castle, which serves as Downton Abbey in the show and film, still exist today, albeit in more modern forms.
The average salary for Butler is $74,773 per year in the Australia. The average additional cash compensation for a Butler in the Australia is $3,000, with a range from $3,000 - $3,000. Salaries estimates are based on 4 salaries submitted anonymously to Glassdoor by Butler employees in Australia.
How much does a butler make in Australia? If we look at the butler salary statistics in Australia as of 19 July 2023, the represented employee makes $251,520; to be more precise pay rate is $20,960 per month, $4,837 per week, or $132.38 per hour.
Definition of butler. as in manservant. a man employed in in the home of a wealthy person to perform various personal services and to be in charge of other household employees. manservant.
This pause in the day's toil provided some free time, but servants were rarely allowed to leave the house. A bell could ring at any time, calling them to provide a service or to perform routine tasks. In effect, there was no end to their working day, and one day off a month was the most they could hope for.
The early 20th century started to see a decline in the use of a lady's maid though the contrast of the lives of the staff and family on these estates still intrigues.
Moreover, black women who worked as domestics during the 1950s and 1960s were generally treated as poor, uneducated, child-like creatures (Thompson, 1988).