Houseboy
Male domestic worker or personal assistant
title: "Houseboy" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["domestic-work", "gay-culture"] description: "Male domestic worker or personal assistant" topic_path: "general/domestic-work" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houseboy" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Male domestic worker or personal assistant ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox occupation"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Houseboy |
| image | P00197-431 (cropped).jpg |
| caption | Houseboy with child in New Guinea, c. 1930s |
| type | Domestic labour |
| activity_sector | Housework |
| related_occupation | Maid |
| :: |
| name= Houseboy | image= P00197-431 (cropped).jpg | caption= Houseboy with child in New Guinea, c. 1930s | official_names= | type=Domestic labour | activity_sector=Housework | competencies= | formation= | employment_field= | related_occupation = Maid | average_salary= Houseboy is a term which refers to a typically male domestic worker or personal assistant who performs cleaning and other forms of personal chores. The term has a record of being used in the British Empire, military slang.
United Kingdom
Historically, houseboy was a term used in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for a male domestic servant. He was usually, but not always, a native person who worked for a British family living in the non-British regions of the empire. A female housecleaner was termed a housegirl. Both sexes often wore uniform, due to their status as domestic servants.
Military slang
Houseboy was also used as an American slang term originating in the Second World War for a young teenager who helped American soldiers perform basic responsibilities like cleaning, laundry, ironing, shoe-shining, running errands, etc. The British English term for this occupation was 'Batman'.
References
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::