At Qi's company, 90 percent of the workers are aged between 16 and 20. Most of them come from rural western China, where there are fewer employment opportunities than in the cities.

Zhang Xuejun has been hiring maids for seven years. She detects a change in the women who come out and work. "Years ago, they wanted to make money, now they want to be independent and working. They aspire for something more," she says.

One of her maids went on to become a hairdresser, but most quit after a year or two to find a husband back home. Although Zhang prefers a long-term maid, she understands the priority to have a family. "Girls get married young in the country, 24 is pretty old to be single," Zhang says.

Low social status, lack of job prospects and marriage are very real problems in the development of the profession. Another less immediate, but fundamental hurdle is inadequate legislation. As a rural migrant worker, Qi is not officially employed by her company, and therefore not protected by labor laws.

"Household service companies do not sign employment contracts with their maids because of the high mobility and turnover rate," Wang says.

Officially employing the maids means the companies need to shoulder the costs of insurance for each employee. At hundreds of yuan per year per person, it is out of the budget of most companies, Wang says.

Instead of a formal contract, the companies sign a year-long "gentlemen's agreement" with the maids, in which the company plays the role of manager and negotiator between the maids and the families that hire them. In return, the companies charge about 10 percent of their monthly pay.

Although the maids do not have social insurance, most companies are happy to shoulder the part of medical expenses they cannot afford, Wang says.

A lot of the young women fall ill when they first come to the city as they are not used to the diet and stress, and their companies usually pay for the surgeries, he says.