Handmaiden

A handmaiden (or handmaid) is a personal maid or female servant.

Domestic work

See also: Maid and Domestic worker

Religion

A man might use a handmaiden as a concubine to bear his child if his wife was infertile. For example, the biblical Rachel, the childless wife of Jacob, gave her handmaid Bilhah to her husband to produce children. Jacob's first wife Leah later did the same. The Virgin Mary referred to herself as "the handmaid of the Lord" in acceptance of becoming pregnant by the Holy Spirit.

See also

• The Handmaid's Tale, а dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood warning against about a potential religious dictatorship in a fictional Republic of Gilead where women are assigned only reproduction-related roles in society of the future.
  • The Handmaid's Tale (film adaptation of the novel)
  • The Handmaid's Tale (the operatic adaptation of the novel)
• Henchman
• Lady-in-waiting
• Nurse stereotypes