Why are female servants called Marthas?

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Gilead names its female household servants after Martha, a New Testament figure associated with domestic and kitchen work.

Rita and Cora show what that role means in daily life. Rita is introduced in the Commander’s kitchen, dressed in green and kneading bread. She gives Offred food tokens and handles cooking. Cora does more general household chores, runs Offred’s bath, brings her dinner, and helps manage the domestic routines of the house. Their title is a caste name rather than an individual identity, just as Handmaids are renamed according to the Commanders they serve.

The name also fits Gilead’s larger habit of using biblical language to make its social system seem holy. Handmaids are justified through the story of Rachel and Leah, shops have religious names such as Milk and Honey, and official greetings and rituals are saturated with religious overtones. Calling servants Marthas frames ordinary housework as a supposedly sacred female duty.

The label of "Martha" is just one example of how Gilead divides women against one another while pretending those divisions are natural and divinely ordered. Marthas, Handmaids, Wives, Aunts, and Econowives all occupy different ranks, and the biblical naming helps disguise coercion as tradition.