“Why I Want a Wife” a classic short article by Judy Brady was written in 1972, during the end on the Women’s Right Movement. This tremendously changed the responsibility of a wife and how a wife will forever be looked at. Before the Women’s Right Movement, women were typically expected by men to take care of all of their needs and the needs of everyone in the family. Judy Brady creates a strong argument against men's sexist standpoint on a wife's duties by using rhetorical appeals such as ethos, logos, and pathos.
In Brady’s essay, the rhetorical appeal of logos was commonly used to produce evidence and logic. Logos was effectively used to state the obvious discrimination between men and women by stating in the third paragraph; “My wife must arrange to lose time at work and not lose the job. It may mean
…show more content…
a small cut in my wife’s income from time to time, but I guess I can tolerate that. Needless to say my wife will arrange and pay for the care of children when I need a rest and a change of scene.” (229) Women were expected to take care of their husbands and children by cooking meals, keeping the house clean, go grocery shopping.
More than less, women’s necessities were considered to be second to their husbands as if the husband's needs were more important than the wifes. “I would like to go back to school so that I can be economically independent, support myself, and, if I need be, support those depends upon me. I want a wife who will work and send me to school. And while I am going to school, I want a wife to take care of my children.” (229) Not only were the wives expected to lose time from her job, but was also expected to take care of everything that the husband needed her to. In an instance such as supporting him to go back to school. The men expect the women to work hard and take care of all the business and never complain and always do as she is told by her husband. “I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling complaints...I want a wife who will listen to me…” (229) The wife was also expected to do what her husband told her to do whenever he
wanted to do something. The women were somewhat treated like husbands slaves, if the women were to say no to their husbands they were not happy with their wife. “I want a wife who is sensitive to my sexual needs, a wife who makes love passionately and eagerly when I feel like it; a wife who makes sure that I am satisfied. And of course, I want a wife who will not demand sexual attention when I am not in the mood for it. (230) All of there are straightforward examples of how women were discriminated against in the 1970’s. Wives were expected to do everything for their family with little to no appreciation at all. A cliche wife in the 1970’s were counted upon to presume the role of a hard working housekeeper, loving and caring mother, and a faithful and devoted wife. Judy Brady creates an astonishing portrayal of female humor in the 1970’s phenomenon as well as formed a new starting point for women's rights. Brady does this by using multiple rhetorical methods such as logos, ethos, pathos, and humor. There discriminations displayed in the essay portray logical reasoning into the reader's mind that women were never treated fairly and should be treated just as equally as men.
This source provided the unique perspective of what was thought to be the perfect household, with a man who worked and a wife who cooked and cleaned. However, it also showed how a woman could also do what a man can do, and in some cases they could do it even better. This work is appropriate to use in this essay because it shows how men talked down to their wives as if they were children. This work shows the gradual progression of woman equality and how a woman is able to make her own decisions without her husband’s input.
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
...c. 4). This is an example of one of the seven unequal relationships in Confucianism. Much of the social structure of classical China was based on Confucian ideals (Doc. 3). In Greece the relationship between a husband and wife also very unequal due to her young age and lack of education. Alone a woman had no political rights and limited legal powers therefore is was necessary for a husband to provide for his wife much like a father would (Doc. 6) A woman would learn house hold management and eventually produce heirs. These two similar systems of social roles was not a benevolent system. It did not take into account the welfare of individuals, particularly woman who had little power to leave in a bad marital situation. However by insuring that people know their place, which kept them in line, classical societies were more prosperous and able to run more smoothly.
Judy Brady is a well know feminist and activist during the nineties. She is also a well know writer and get publicity for her most influence essay over females and their roles as wife in “Why I want a wife”. She wrote this essay to give strength to her fellow activist in showing feminism. She also tried to show the world, how females are considered. Even though Judy’s essay talks about a long list of duties of women as a wife, her way of organizing it through ethos, pathos and logos to develop her argument , use of rhetorical devices such as irony, anaphora and her simple way of explaining main ideas to her readers, made it a successful essay.
Judy Brady’s essay “I Want a Wife” uses a sarcastic tone in order to illuminate the amount of much pressure that is put on wives, not just by their husbands, but by society as well. Brady’s tone voices to the audience that changes need to be made to the role of women.
Now a days, Society think about women that they , have youngsters, and deal with the family unit. However with such a significant number of assignments a spouse is required to finish, what makes her any unique in relation to a worker or a cleaning specialist? By the spouse being relied upon to watch over the tyke after a separation, clean the house, deal with the kids, and serve the necessities of the husband, Brady communicates that she would need a wife as well. In Brady's article "I Want a Wife", Brady utilizes incongruity and reiteration to mirror society's view on ladies and spouses.
Thesis Statement: Men and women were in different social classes, women were expected to be in charge of running the household, the hardships of motherhood. The roles that men and women were expected to live up to would be called oppressive and offensive by today’s standards, but it was a very different world than the one we have become accustomed to in our time. Men and women were seen to live in separate social class from the men where women were considered not only physically weaker, but morally superior to men. This meant that women were the best suited for the domestic role of keeping the house. Women were not allowed in the public circle and forbidden to be involved with politics and economic affairs as the men made all the
Many sexist ideas have long been accepted and have become the societal norm. In “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady the author talks about how she wants a wife to do the typically expected things of a wife for her. Brady simply lists all the things a wife in today’s age is expected to do such as “pick up after the children, and a wife who will pick up after me” (504). It is the wife duty to give herself to her kids and husband regardless of how she is ever feeling. Throughout the literary piece the author shows how the needs of the wife are no longer considered when she becomes a wife. The entire essay is stated so matter-of-factly that it really shows how accepted these absurd ideologies really
Women in this era had just begun to secure some freedom from their typical cultural expectations. They were expected to take care of the children, cook, clean, sew and be presentable to society. As jobs were made available to women, only a low percentage of these women started to work outside of the home. This means that many women had chosen to stay inside the home to remain in the role of “house keeper”. Even though the woman attained some freedom they were still considered inferior to men. Men still had the most authority in the household and
However, the lives of these women were not as easy as it may have seemed. In retrospect, their roles, although seemingly wonderful, were actually oppressive. They were taught to be obedient and loyal to their husbands . Their opinions were devalued, and they were thought of as nothing more than an accessory to their husbands.
Women “were expected to bear children, stay home, cook and clean, and take care of the children” (Cobb 29). They were expected to be weak, timid, domestic, emotional, dependent, and pure. Women were taught to be physically and emotionally inferior in addition morally superior to men. During this time, women were ostracized for expressing characteristics and wants that contradicted those ideals. For women, the areas of influence are home and children, whereas men’s sphere includes work and the outside world” (Brannon 161).
Brady uses men’s one sided opinions on women to reveal how much is expected of them, in particular, wives. She writes, “I want a wife who will take care of my physical needs” (Brady 252). Brady exhibits a mans point of view on what a wife is. Simply someone who caters to their needs before their own.
“Not too long ago a male friend of mine appeared on the scene fresh from a recent divorce. He had one child, who is, of course, with his ex-wife. He is look- ing for another wife (Brady),” which led Judy to reveal the treatment and roles of women defined by men. The male friend of Brady is looking for a wife despite the child that he had is with his ex-wife. This proves that not only children are dependent on women, but men are too because of their selfish reasons to get food, a clean house, kids, and other physical needs from their wife. As Brady states that, “I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling complains about a wife’s duties,” (Brady) it proves that men’s expectation are so high, because of their selfish character who tends to eliminate the concerns of a wife. As a
In the reading’s of “Why I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady, (Essay #6) the author gives details on the reasons she would love to have a wife by her side. She gives explicit encounters on the labor detail job of a woman, from cooking, to cleaning, to ironing, to sexual interactions. Now, I do believe that as a wife, there are specifics that are wanted in a marriage, but nothing stated as a demand.
Brady highlights evidence that her husband does not care about how she feels throughout the essay, illustrated when she says “I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling complaints about a wife's duties. But I want a wife who will listen to me when I feel the need to explain a rather difficult point I have come across in my course studies”(Brady 264). While this may be the case for many men, it is extremely stereotypical, as well as sexist, to assume that all men are this ignorant; and this assumption is called hasty generalization. Brady lists example after example of times when she felt like she did much of the work while her husband did little to contribute. However, she only sees things from her own perspective.