Rhetorical Analysis Of Why I Want A Wife By Judy Brady

In the 1970s most people had the opinion of the role of a woman is to stay at home and take care of the children and to do the everyday household chores. Only 40% of women during this time were taking part of the work force, the other 60% were staying at home tending to the “ Wifely duties”. During this time the women's rights movement began to start. This movement showed women the expectations and standards most people wanted them to be upholded to, many beleive this is why Judy Brady wrote her article called “ Why I Want a Wife” published in Ms. Magazine in 1972. Judy appeals to us as an audience by using ethos, logos, and pathos.

Most authors use ethos to get credibility for their work and to show they know what they are talking about, Judy is no different. She writes the article as a wife and having first- hand experience, as she states “... I am A Wife. And, not altogether incidentally, I am a mother.” (229). She mentions this in the beginning of the article to show she is experienced in this area. Knowing she has experience in this area we trust her more with the information she is giving out.

Pathos appeals to our emotions and makes us human, authors use this to make us feel afflicted about the situation or problem.

Brady uses pathos in this article more than she does ethos or logos. Judy applies pathos to her article in multiple ways. She gives the audience examples of what a wife does on a daily or weekly basis, such as in paragraphs three and four ¨… take care of the children… make doctor and dentist appointments… plan the menus...¨ (229): these examples get to our emotions and cause us to feel sympathy and in some cases empathy for the wives having to do these chores and disliked duties. Brady does a good job using pathos in this article, she makes us as an audience see how much wives do in the

household.
In “ Why I Want a Wife” Brady does not use as logos as she does ethos or pathos. Logos is the use of facts or logic to prove a point. How Brady applies logos is stating all of the things wives do for their households. This could also be linked to how she uses pathos. When she list off the things the wife does she is listing facts so it would also be logos. “ … keep my house clean… cooks meals… take care of me when I am sick and sympathize with my pain..” (229), these are a few examples of the list she has made. Logos is difficult to identify in this particular article.