Charwoman

A charwoman, char or (ironically) charlady is or was an English house cleaner. The term has the same roots as "chore woman," one hired to do odd chores around the house. A char or chare was a turn (of work) in the sixteenth century,, which gave rise to prefix being used to denote people working in domestic service. The usage of "charwoman" was common in the mid-19th century, often appearing as an occupation in the English census of 1841, but it fell out of common use in the last decades of the 20th century. Unlike a maid or housekeeper, typically live-in positions, the charwoman usually worked for hourly wages, usually on a part-time basis, often having several different employers.

The position often features in fiction; one notable character is the charwoman who appears in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Among well-known chars is Ada Harris, the central character in Paul Gallico's novel Mrs 'Arris goes to Paris. In the British radio comedy series It's That Man Again, Dorothy Summers played the part of Mrs Mopp, an office char whose catch phrase was "Can I do you now, Sir?" (i.e., "May I clean your office now, Sir?" but with an obvious double entendre). A charwoman also appears in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis (1915).