The younger the butler, the more likely she is a woman. Here’s what our data on 700+ butlers shows.

Can a woman be a butler? Yes. Nearly one in four butlers (23%) in Morgan & Mallet’s network is a woman. Among butlers under 35, it’s nearly one in three (31%) (Morgan & Mallet candidate database, June 2026).

If you ask most people to picture a butler, they are likely to see an older man in a tailcoat. Our data shows a different picture today.

Morgan & Mallet, a luxury household staffing agency with an office in Mayfair, places butlers in high-net-worth households across the UK and worldwide.

These numbers are from our own international candidate database. The UK’s official job statistics don’t count butlers separately, so data like this isn’t easy to find elsewhere.

What is a female butler called?

A female butler is called a butler. The job title doesn’t change between a man and a woman.

You might find the word “butleress” sometimes, but in our experience families and recruiters don’t use it. “Lady butler” isn’t a title that is used either.

The word butler is very old, and comes from centuries ago. It comes from the word “buttery”, the medieval room where casks of wine and ale were stored.

English Heritage says that in most great houses, the butler was the most senior servant.

And today it’s still the same. The Cambridge Dictionary defines a butler as “the most important male servant in a house”.

The dictionary is still using old terms like “servant” and it doesn’t show the way the role has changed.

How many butlers are women?

In Morgan & Mallet’s network, 23% of butlers are women. That’s nearly one in four (Morgan & Mallet candidate database, June 2026).

When we sort them by their age it’s clear to see a pattern.

• Under 35: 31% are women, nearly one in three
• 35 to 49: 23% are women
• 50 and over: 11% are women, about one in nine

The younger age groups have a higher percentage of women.

This breakdown can’t be found in official UK figures. In the Office for National Statistics’ official list of jobs, a butler isn’t a job of its own.

It’s filed under “cleaning and housekeeping managers and supervisors”, a group made up mostly of hotel and office cleaning supervisors.

Pay shows how different that group is. Its median pay is £24,931 a year, according to the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (2025, provisional). A butler in a private UK household typically earns £50,000 to £100,000.

But where the government does count a household role, it matches our numbers. The ONS Annual Population Survey estimates that 31,400 of the 35,600 people working as housekeepers and related staff in the UK are women. That’s about 88%.

In our network, 85% of housekeepers are women.

It’s useful to check this to show that our database does compare with the real workforce. You can find out exactly how we worked out these figures below under “How we measured this”.

Why are younger butlers more often women?

The reason comes down to how the role has changed. A butler today does a lot more than just serve at the table. Laurine Mallet, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet, explains this:

“Probably the first thing that distinguishes a modern butler is the presentation. They don’t need specific formal clothes like before. They’re much more versatile and multitask much more.

“They can do inventory, help with cleaning, go to the dry cleaner. It’s not only table service anymore.”

Some families ask us for a female butler. Families with a female principal sometimes prefer one, for comfort, security or cultural reasons.

Do other household jobs show the same pattern?

Yes, but it happens both ways. Jobs that were seen as “men’s jobs” and “women’s jobs” in the household are done by both men and women, especially among younger household staff.

Almost half of the estate and house managers under 35 in our network are women (48%). Among those over 50 it’s 42%.

In housekeeping and personal assistant roles, it goes the other way. Men make up:

• Almost 30% of head housekeepers under 35, against 6% of those over 50
• 24% of housekeepers under 35, against 11% of those over 50
• 21% of personal assistants under 35, against 11% of those over 50

Some jobs haven’t changed at all. Only about 3% of chauffeurs in our network are women, and it stays between 2% and 3% in every age group.

Private chefs are 20% to 25% women at every age, without a clear pattern (Morgan & Mallet candidate database, June 2026).

What does this mean if you’re hiring a butler?

It’s important to hire based on skills and the right fit for you. A family that only considers male butlers is overlooking 23% of the butlers in our network, and 31% of the younger ones.

Many UK families still ask for a traditional English butler. In our 2025/26 report, 22% of clients asked for one trained at a recognised school, and formal roles often go to butlers aged 50 to 60.

Yet 31% of butlers under 35 in our network are women, so a narrow brief can rule out a lot of good candidates.

Think about the job your household needs doing, the level of service you want, whether your butler will manage other staff and if you want them to offer formal service.

The character of the person is as important as the CV. Morgan & Mallet co-founder Morgan Richez says, “It’s easier to teach someone something new than to change their character or education.”

If your family would prefer a female butler, it’s the same. Choose the person with the right skills for your household.

If you’re thinking about hiring a butler, our butler page explains how we find and vet candidates.

How we measured this

These figures are from Morgan & Mallet’s international candidate database. They cover the candidates in our network who have worked as a butler, or in the other roles mentioned.

The gender numbers are based on candidate profiles created since 2022, when this detail began to be recorded consistently. The butler numbers come from 718 profiles, and the age breakdown uses the 695 that include a birth year.

The figures are a snapshot of our network in June 2026, grouped by age. They show how age groups are different today, rather than how the profession has changed over time.

The official UK figures come from the Office for National Statistics. A butler is coded to group 6240 in the ONS Standard Occupational Classification 2020.

The housekeeper figures are for group 6231 from the Annual Population Survey, April 2025 to March 2026. Pay is from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14, 2025 provisional.

Journalists are welcome to cite this data with a link to this page. For more detail email [email protected]. More data on butlers is available in our Morgan & Mallet Household Staff Industry Report.

Frequently asked questions

Do female butlers earn the same as male butlers?

The pay of a butler depends on their experience, the size of the household and location.

In our 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report, UK butler salaries are from £50,000 to £100,000 a year, gross. Figures by gender are not published.

Do families ask for a female butler?

Some families do ask us for a female butler. For most families, skills are the first thing they put emphasis on.

How many butlers are there in the UK?

Nobody knows exactly. The Office for National Statistics doesn’t count butlers as a job of their own. It includes them in a much larger group of cleaning and housekeeping managers and supervisors, most of whom work in hotels and offices.

Looking for a butler for your home? Call us on +44 20 4578 6249 or get in touch through our website, and we can talk about what your household needs.