Rhetorical Analysis Of Why I Want A Wife By Judy Brady

This article, “Why I Want a Wife,” was written during a time a vital time for women in history. At this time the Women’s Right Movement was going on and wives and mothers wanted equal treatment. Before the movement women had few rights and were expected to stay home and care for the child and house by men. Many articles were written why women, like Judy Brady, during this time in support of Women's rights. In this article, many rhetorics methods are applied. Brady uses the rhetorical strategy of logos the most to create an argument against sexism and equal rights for wives.

Brady throughout this article uses facts with hard evidence to prove knowledge of the topic and create an argument. Brady begins the article by proving her knowledge about

the argument: “I am a Wife. And, not altogether incidentally, I am a mother” (229). Then, Brady beings to argue the inequality of women's and men's roles in the world in the first sentence of the third paragraph.

As a woman she wants to be able to support herself and not depend on others, but she cannot because she has to do all the duties that are required as a wife and does not have time: “I would like to go back to school so that I can become economically independent, support myself, and if need be, support those dependent upon me” (229). Women were discriminated against, and their needs were not thought to be as critical as men’s and children’s. The wife is expected to take care of everyone else's needs before her own. Wives were supposed to get groceries, make meals, arrange schedules, do the shopping, and clean. Wives do not have time to do what they want and take care of their own needs because of those duties. Eventually, these duties turn into burdens to wives. Not only were wives expected to fulfill all those duties, but some were expected to have and keep another job outside the house to help provide for their families. As a man, they expected the wife to plan and arrange every fraction of the men's life: "I want a wife who will take care of the details of my social life. When I meet people at school that I like and want to entertain, I want a wife who will have

the house clean, will prepare special meals, serve it to me and my friends” (229). As a wife, they were expected to do all these duties, and not moan or complain about them: “I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling and complaints about wife duties” (229). Wives were just expected to plan and be fine with everything that the man did: “And not interrupt when I talk about things that interest me and my friends" (229). Women could not state their opinion on what they thought or what they did or did not want to do. Women were discriminated against and treated unfairly. Brady uses logos to prove her argument.
At this time, wives were expected to do everything in the house and for the family, and often without recognition. They were discriminated against and treated unfairly and were expected to be fine with it. A woman was expected to assume this role of a caring mother, housewife, and honorable wife, to take on all these duties and not complain. In this article it shows the reasoning, through the rhetorical strategy of logos to prove why it should be written, and why the treatment of wives to be changed.