I Want A Wife

517 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The impact of gender stereotypes

In the year 1972 an author Judy Brady wrote the article, “Why I Want A Wife,” which appeared in Ms. Magazine. In this article Brady cleverly writes about herself as a wife wanting a wife to do all the jobs she would rather not do as a wife. As ludicrous as this sounds, she truly is really writesing a humorous satire that relates to the mood of many women in the 1970’s who felt unappreciated and dictated by men on unrealistic expectations and demands on what it means to be a woman, a mother, and a wife. Brady uses pathos throughout her article to emotionally connect with the reader and to create sympathy and uses humor to strengthen her objective of showing how women’s roles are dictated by men in society.
Brady knows what she is oratingtalking about because she is not only referring to herself, but all the other women who feel burdened, and weighed down with so many …show more content…

Brady’s objective shows these daily duties and demands put on women not only can not be realistically met, but they demean women into a kind of slave worker rather than an equal partner in the marriage.
Another strategy Brady uses throughout this article is humor. TShe shows through ridicule and exaggeration, Brady shows how lopsided relationships are when it comes to women in how they are treated by men. The height of her frustration can especially be seen in her words about replacing an old wife with a new one. In her words about liberty: “I want the liberty to replace my present wife another one. Naturally I expect a fresh, new life: my wife will take the children and be solely responsible for them so that I am left free” (Brady 230). Brady’s biting words reveal s the hypocrisy and double standards that men get away with and women would be sneered at for even attempting. Brady’s humor both disarms men’s foolish arguments while bolstering women’s liberation from the tyranny of men jumping from one marriage to

Show More
Related

  • Wife vs. Daughter in Only Daughter by Sandra Cisneros and Why I Want a Wife by Judy Brady

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story ?Why I want a wife? by Judy Brady, she goes into detail what being a wife is like. The tedious details of day to day activities, the strain and hard work of being a ?good wife?, and the unappreciated service a wife must perform to be accepted by her husband. This story made me feel like, the author

    Read More

  • A Midwife’s Tale by Martha Ballard

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women like Martha followed the custom of publicly staying out of men’s affairs to honor their husbands, but privately they were the glue that held their lives together and kept the home running from day-to-day. Though these courageous and tireless women worked hard behind the scenes and did not enjoy the freedom and benefits their male counterparts did, they were an inspiration to future generations who recognized their hard work and accomplishments that paved the way for change in the words, “all men are created to equal” to include all of humanity and not just certain men.

    Read More

  • Elizabeth Stanton and Eliza Farnham

    530 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even before this event, the struggles of women in society were surfacing in the media. Eliza Farnham, a married woman in Illinois during the late 1830s, expressed the differing views between men and women on the proper relations between a husband and wife. While Farnham viewed a wife as being “a pleasant face to meet you when you go home from the field, or a soft voice to speak kind words when you are sick, or a gentle friend to converse with you in your leisure hours”, a recently married farmer contended that a wife was useful “to do [a man’s] cookin and such like, ‘kase it’s easier for them than it is for [men]” (Farnham, 243).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of About Love By Danielle Crittenden

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    Other times, falls back on her basis of emotional appeal with statements such as, “A woman will not understand what true dependency is until she is cradling her own infant in her arms” (752). This is a result of the love and devotion she provides for her two children (Reimer). Crittenden looks to fit the profile for a woman who was the founder of a controversial feminist magazine, Women's Quarterly. She has a college degree and has spent quite a bit of time working in the "man's world". Currently she is a CEO, however the part that doesn't fit is that she is happily married and a mother, who stayed home with her children when they were young. Now Crittenden stresses that marriage is an uplifting, joyous experience: “We have ceased to look down the tunnel, waiting for a train” (753). She acknowledges that those in the past have almost been forced to give up their independence because they married so young, but she counters it with wise words like, “By waiting and waiting and waiting to commit to someone, our capacity for love shrinks and withers” (752). Though it’s a big risk, the good far outweighs the bad, both emotionally and logically. Salvation lies within, eternal happiness is in your grasp…all you have to do is grow up, get married, and have

    Read More

  • Evolution of Traditional Values: A Perspective on Gender Equality

    1473 Words  | 3 Pages

    As centuries pass by, generations also pass their traditional values to the next generation. some people still think the way their ancestors thought and believe in what they believed in. During the beginning of 1890 people couldn’t have premarital sex, women had to be the caretaker while men were the breadwinner. During this century, those perspectives have changed, argued Stephanie Coontz, the author of “The American Family”. Coontz believes women should have more freedom and there should be gender equality.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper and A Doll’s House

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    In society, there has always been a gap between men and women. Women are generally expected to be homebodies, and seen as inferior to their husbands. The man is always correct, as he is more educated, and a woman must respect the man as they provide for the woman’s life. During the Victorian Era, women were very accommodating to fit the “house wife” stereotype. Women were to be a representation of love, purity and family; abandoning this stereotype would be seen as churlish living and a depredation of family status. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Henry Isben’s play A Doll's House depict women in the Victorian Era who were very much menial to their husbands. Nora Helmer, the protagonist in A Doll’s House and the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” both prove that living in complete inferiority to others is unhealthy as one must live for them self. However, attempts to obtain such desired freedom during the Victorian Era only end in complications.

    Read More

  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton And On The Equality Of The Sexes

    1407 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... to the domesticated woman urging her to care for her family providing food for the body but to also care for herself in providing food for her mind: A house is no home unless it contain food and fire for the mind as well as for the body” (602). Murray, also makes suggestion for reform, encouraging women not to abandon their familial roles, but, rather tend to their family’s domestic needs dynamically saying “while we are pursuing the needle, or the superintendency of the family, I repeat, that our minds are at full liberty for reflection; that imagination may exert itself in full vigor” (405). In saying this she encourages women not to be passive but to be active and dynamic in their supposed roles as women, to defy the notion of the archetypal woman who tends to her family and has nothing that pertains to her solely and enrich the mind and subsequently herself.

    Read More

  • Yellow Wallpaper: Beyond The Wall

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...women’s roles in society and in the household are. It is quite interesting on how many biased readers and writers we have in this world. There are so many people so quick to label women and men based on very simplistic roles in society. Men believe women have something to prove or justify, but only in the household. Overall, I really enjoyed interpreting this short story and literary reviews by Ann Oakley and Karen Ford.

    Read More

  • Woman in the Nineteenth Century, by Margaret Fuller

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    In her essay, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Margaret Fuller discusses the state of marriage in America during the 1800‘s. She is a victim of her own knowledge, and is literally considered ugly because of her wisdom. She feels that if certain stereotypes can be broken down, women can have the respect of men intellectually, physically, and emotionally. She explains why some of the inequalities exist in marriages around her. Fuller feels that once women are accepted as equals, men and women will be able achieve a true love not yet known to the people of the world.

    Read More

  • The Women’s Rights Movement

    1484 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Judy Brady’s, “I Want A Wife” (1971) sarcasm or a humorous tone is expressed on the topic of what makes a wife. Brady repetitively states, “I want a wife” and begins to list what makes “a wife.” Brady defines a wife as someone who takes care of the children, cleans and cooks, gives up her ti...

    Read More

  • Mad Men

    1935 Words  | 4 Pages

    Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, explains the mind set of society in the 1960s. She writes that the women of the ‘60s were identified only as creatures looking for “sex, babies, and home” (Friedan 36). She goes on to say “The only passion, the only pursuit, the only goal a woman [was] permitted [was] the pursuit of a man” (Friedan 36). This mind set, this “feminine mystique,” is clearly shown throughout the show Mad Men. The side effect of the feminine mystique hurt all the women of this time. Matthew Weiner shows how this conception of the “ideal woman” hurt all of his lead women. The consequences are shown in the two women who bought into the idea, Betty and Joan, and the one who re...

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1952 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator and her husband John can be seen as strong representations of the effects society’s stereotypical gender roles as the dominant male and submissive female have within a marriage. Because John’s wife takes on the role as the submissive female, John essentially controlled all aspects of his wife’s life, resulting in the failure of the couple to properly communicate and understand each other. The story is intended to revolve around late 19th century America, however it still occurs today. Most marriages still follow the traditional gender stereotypes, potentially resulting in a majority of couples to uphold an unhealthy relationship or file for divorce. By comparing the “The yellow wallpaper” with the article “Eroticizing Inequality in the United States: The Consequences and Determinants of Traditional Gender Role Adherence in Intimate Relationships”, the similarities between the 19th century and 21st century marriage injustice can further be examined. If more couples were able to separate the power between the male and female, America would have less unhappy marriages and divorces.

    Read More

  • The Feminine Mystique Analysis

    1418 Words  | 3 Pages

    Friedan frustratingly explains how women’s choices to revert back to domestic roles after World War II compromised women’s independence and identity. Friedan uses this frustration to revive modern feminism and extinguish the prison that gender roles had imprisoned women in. In The Feminine Mystique, Friedan illustrates how women fell into the common portrayal of a housewife just fifteen years after the war and how “millions of women lived their lives in the image of those pretty pictures of the American suburban housewife, kissing their husbands goodbye in front of the picture window, depositing their stationwagonsful of children at school…their only dream was to be perfect wives and mothers…”(Friedan 61) and other description that fit the occupation of “housewife”.

    Read More

  • Feminism In Girl By Jamaica Kincaid

    1189 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” shows in society how a woman should be placed and what it means to be a woman. A women doesn’t question her partner, instead she is subservient to him. A woman’s duties include staying at home taking care of the children and cooking; while the man works and brings home the money. A feministic approach to Kincaid’s “Girl” points to the idea of the stereotypes that women can only be what they do in the home, they should only be pure and virtuous, and their main focus should be satisfying their husband.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Women In Judy Brady's I Want A Wife

    1070 Words  | 3 Pages

    In her classic essay first published in feminist magazine Ms., “I Want a Wife” Judy Brady declares the role of women in the 1970’s as viewed from a man’s point of view. This essay by Judy Brady is written from a feminist point of view portraying how men perceive women in their minds and how life is difficult as a wife:

    Read More

More about I Want A Wife

Open Document