It was truly saddening how the "help" took better care of their employers children and homes than the employers themselves. I find it ironic that they were branded as "housewives" or "caretakers" when they really didn't do anything other than looking pretty, having the babies (when it served to their benefit), and preparing for their "high society"
Bridge Club parties with the other housewives in the neighborhood. Not only did they not project their duties as mothers or caretakers, but they treated the women and people they hired to do so in such a way worse than they would an animal! Even Skeeter and her mother Charlette (played by Allison Janney) had "help" named Constantine (played by Cicely Tyson) when Skeeter was young. Skeeter adored Constantine, as she treated her like a mother and showed her more attention than her own mother. Though, Charlette became somewhat jealous of Constantine and her relationship with her daughter. She had also become embarrassed when Constantine had made a mistake at one of her house parties because of her old age, ending up in Charlette firing Contantine. Another set of housewives that didn't take care of their "help" was Hilly Holbrook and Jolene French (played by Bryce Dallas Howard and Anna Camp). They had the gall to build separate bathrooms outside of their homes specifically for their "help". Hilly even drafted the "home house sanitation initiative" which was a bill that required every white home to have separate bathrooms for the "help". They truly believed that they had some sort of diseases that could be transferred through to them by sharing the same toilet. Hilly even marked and measured the toilet paper to make sure that Minny (her help) hadn't been in there using it. Well, Minny really had to "go". So, she tried to sneak and use the one in the house but Hilly heard her flush the toilet, leading to Minny's immediate termination.
