Charwoman, chargirl, charlady and char are occupational terms referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the household within the structure of domestic service. A charwoman might work independently, often for cash in hand, or might come through an employment agency.

Before 1960, the term "charwoman" was used as an official job title by government agencies in the United States, including municipal and state governments and by federal agencies such as the Department of Commerce and Labor, the Bureau of the Census, and the Bureau of Immigration.

Charwomen have also sometimes been referred to as "scrubwomen". The word has the same root as "chore woman", one hired to do odd chores around the house. In British English, "cleaner" is now used much more often. In American English, the term "cleaning lady" or "housekeeper" is often used for any woman who cleans a home or hotel, whether she lives there or not. American Gothic is an iconic photograph of "charwoman" Ella Watson by Gordon Parks, as a reimaging of the painting of the same name.

A char or chare was a term (of work) in the 16th century, which gave rise to the word being used as a prefix to denote people working in domestic service. The usage of "charwoman" was common in the mid-19th century, often appearing as an occupation in the UK census of 1841. It fell out of common use in the later decades of the 20th century, often replaced by the term "daily (woman)". Unlike a maid or housekeeper (typically live-in positions), the charwoman usually worked for hourly wages, usually on a part-time contract, often having several different employers.

The position has often featured as a stock character in fiction.

In British literature, Victorian examples includes Mrs. Dilber, Ebenezer Scrooge's charwoman, who appears in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. In the short story "The Diary of Anne Rodway", by Wilkie Collins, Anne investigates the murder of her friend Mary and learns that the suspect's wife is a woman "ready to turn her hand to anything: charing, washing, laying-out, keeping empty houses..." A charwoman appears in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis (1915).

In 1926, Lord Dunsany's fantasy novel The Charwoman's Shadow was published to good reviews. A woman granted eternal life, but not eternal youth, finds herself working forever as a magician's charwoman.

A charwoman, Sarah Cobbin, is a critical character in the detective novel Part for a Poisoner (1948) by E.C.R. Lorac. In the comic strip Andy Capp (from 1957), Andy's wife Flo is a charwoman. Another well-known fictional charwoman is Ada Harris, the central character in Paul Gallico's novel Mrs 'Arris goes to Paris (1958) and its three sequels.