In her classic essay first published in Feminist magazine Ms., “I Want a Wife”, by Judy Brady declares the role of women in the 1970’s as viewed from a man’s point of view. It is explicit Brady is a Feminist even though she is reducing women to the role of a domestic slave because of her style of writing is satirical:
“…while I was ironing one evening, it suddenly occurred to me that I, would like to have a wife. Why do I want a wife? (Brady)”
It is while she is ironing that she comes to the realization that she wants a wife. She doesn’t want to be a wife at least not the kind she goes on describing and because of her exhausting experience. As Brady’s article progresses, she is reflecting on how men view the role of a wife as she continues
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The repetition of the phrase “I want a wife” in the essay reveals the desire of a man to have a wife because of the duties that they fulfill. This phrase highlights the importance of the duties such as cooking, having children, cleaning, and other domestic work and how a wife must complete all of them. The repetition of the word “I” is describing men as egocentric in which they are worried about themselves rather than their wife. The author sets a sarcastic tone in which she demands to have a wife, where in reality she is tired of being a wife herself. The incorporation of rhetorical questions such as, “Why do I want a wife?” (Brady) stated at the end of the first paragraph and “My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?” (Brady) helps create a sense of humor after describing and listing all the duties that women have to fulfill. The title “I Want a Wife” is an irony itself because it makes the reader feel that the author is a male since he is looking for a wife where in reality it is a wife whom is releasing her experience as a woman. Judy’s use of hyperbole makes it lucid of unfairness that women continue to face. As Brady states, “I want a wife who will have the house clean, will prepare a special meal, serve it to me and my friends, and not interrupt…” (Brady) establishes how a wife is responsible for all the events that occur in a man’s life such as friends coming home, but is not …show more content…
Judy Brady’s essay presents an effective approach on how wives should be given an equally chance in a household to express themselves with their dreams. Women are often portrayed by men as weak and not worthy of equality such as men. However, Brady removes the blindfold off many as she zoom’s the treatment of a wife just because she is a female. Likewise the continuous of the phrase “I want a wife” portrays men as weak because they are dependent on someone else in their life. The image that society creates on men and women continue on by people who don’t understand the value and worthiness of a female. Brady essay exhibits women as strong because of the roles that they serve as a wife, mother, house manager, and a caretaker. The article by Brady is demanding equality for women that would eliminate gender issues and bring phenomenal success to every wife. Similar to Brady’s goal Malala Yousafzi a female activist uttered, “We cannot succeed if half of us are held back” reveals the importance of everyone working together for success rather than allowing inequality hinder an individual. In the final analysis, Brady’s essay displays a powerful message that the role of a wife must be redefined for equality that will restore the integrity of a
...promising dreams, relationships often fall apart under strain from unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, imprisonment, conflict and betrayal. Finally, we get to the heart of what marriage means to these mothers and why they say that successfully raising children is the most important job they will ever have. Almost all of the women said things like “It’s only because my children that I am where I am today.”
Women were also led on to believe that housewifery and motherhood were the only two occupations available to them. In most girls’ lives, ...
Johnson, Miriam M. Strong Mothers, Weak Wives: The Search for Gender Equality. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. Print.
Ethos, logos, and pathos are one of the most important literary strategies to making an effective essay. In the essay “Why I Want a Wife”, Judy Brady focuses most on her use of pathos to try and emotionally connect with her audience. Brady also strategically uses ethos and logos to successfully make a point to the readers of Ms. Magazine that a wife's duties are greatly exceeding what is acceptable. Although Brady uses all three of these strategies, the one that most successfully appeals to her audience is her use of pathos.
Throughout most of recorded history, women generally have endured significantly fewer career opportunities and choices, and even less legal rights, than that of men. The “weaker sex,” women were long considered naturally, both physically and mentally, inferior to men. Delicate and feeble minded, women were unable to perform any task that required muscular or intellectual development. This idea of women being inherently weaker, coupled with their natural biological role of the child bearer, resulted in the stereotype that “a woman’s place is in the home.” Therefore, wife and mother were the major social roles and significant professions assigned to women, and were the ways in which women identified and expressed themselves. However, women’s history has also seen many instances in which these ideas were challenged-where women (and some men) fought for, and to a large degree accomplished, a re-evaluation of traditional views of their role in society.
All over the world, marriage is one of the main things that define a woman’s life. In fact, for women, marriage goes a long way to determine much in their lives including happiness, overall quality of life whether or not they are able to set and achieve their life goals. Some women go into marriages that allow them to follow the paths they have chosen and achieve their goals while for other women, marriage could mean the end of their life goals. For Janie, the lead character in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, who was married twice first to Joe sparks, and to Vergile Tea Cake, her two marriages to these men greatly affected her happiness, quality of life and pursuit of her life goals in various ways, based on the personality of each of the men. Although both men were very different from each other, they were also similar in some ways.
... 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.
Henry David Thoreau famously said that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.” When we compare and contrast these two stories, “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree’s Baby,” by Kate Chapin, we learn that this sentiment may be especially true for women. Kate Chapin uses “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree’s Baby” to bravely explore the social inequalities of women in terms of marriage and divorce. The combination of these two stories point out that despite the presence of love, not all marriages are happy and not all divorces are sad. In “Desiree’s Baby,” Desiree has married for love and wishes to stay married and through no fault of her own, she is forced to divorce. In contrast “The Story of an Hour” is about Louise, who has married out of social obligation and wishes to divorce, but is forced to stay married. Both women are forced to follow paths not of their own choosing and submit to the rules set down by a male dominated society. In spite of society’s tendency to romanticize marriage, many women find marriage to be a limiting burden; for others, marriage may be the only chance at life.
“Like most wives of our generation, we’d contemplated eventual widowhood but never thought we’d end up divorced” (Hekker 278). Traditional wives married for love and to follow th...
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:
it provided to men, one must honestly ask themselves "who wouldn't want a wife?" (Brady-Syfer 803).
From the very beginning of history, women were portrayed to be insignificant in comparison to men in society. A woman 's purpose was deemed by men to be housewives, bear children and take care of the household chores. Even so, that at a young age girls were being taught the chores they must do and must continue through to adulthood. This ideal that the woman’s duty was to take charge of household chores was then passed through generations, even til this day. However, this ideology depends on the culture and the generation mothers were brought up in and what they decide to teach their daughters about such roles. After women were given the opportunity to get an education and treated as equals, society’s beliefs undertook a turning point on women’s roles in society. Yet, there still seems to be a question amongst women in search of self identity and expectations from parents.
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.
Now that we have a little background on the author, we can take a closer look at the actual work and its characters. The two main characters of the story a narrator and her husband, John, and the story takes place in the 19th century. Life for the two is like most other marriages in this time frame, only the narrator is not like most other wives. She has this inner desire to be free from the societal roles that confine her and to focus on her writing, while John in content with his life and thinks that his wife overreacts to everything. Traditionally, in this era, the man was responsible for taking care of the woman both financially and emotionally, while the woman was solely responsible for remaining at home. This w...
In the past, many people believed that women’s exclusive responsibilities were to serve their husband, to be great mothers and to be the perfect wives. Those people considered women to be more appropriate for homemaking rather than to be involved in business or politics. This meant that women were not allowed to have a job, to own property or to enjoy the same major rights as men. The world is changing and so is the role of women in society. In today’s society, women have rights that they never had before and higher opportunities to succeed.