Who Is Judy Brady's I Want A Wife?

Is it the wife's job to carry out the daily duties of the house? Is it expected that the wife do all the work around the house? In the article “Why I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady she talks about everything she does as a wife and a mother. She explains the hardships she endures by doing these things everyday. Judy Brady uses the rhetorical techniques such as ethos, logos, and pathos to support her article, along with connecting personally with the reader.

Stephanie Coontz analyzes the role of family over time, tracking the events in history that caused family to develop into the sentimental term it means today. Coontz delineates the gradual evolution of the family unit from its original form of the members of the household (including extended family, servants, as well as the parents and children) to what is now known as the “nuclear family,” or the parent and their children. The author uses the example of the industrialization of America to depict the impact the increased need for cheap labor in factories had on the family. While lower-income families resorted to working (both the husband and wife), in middle-class families the role of the wife became that of the caretaker and “emotional center”

In the 1960s the ideal family would have a stay home mother. They had to take children to school, prepared meals to the family, clean the house, wash the clothes, iron the clothes and help children with homework. Also, the woman couldn’t pursue school, they were expected to just do their chores at home without an opportunity for advancement. They had to make sure everything was spotless for when her husband came home at night. Since man were the only one’s providing for the family the wife had to take upon all the other responsibility including raising the kids mostly on her

Berry, in the Feminism, the Body, and the Machine, makes an argument about what he believes the feminist, who are against his paper about not needing a computer, are missing when they discuss marriage: “marriage as a state of mutual help, and the household as an economy.” I agree.

In an essay by Judy Brady, the author asserts that husbands (men) expects their wives to cater to their every need; therefore, she too wants a wife to do the same for her. Brady supports her claim first by explaining how a wife should keep track of household duties; second, by explaining how the wife should take care of physical needs; and third by explaining how a wife must satisfy sexual needs. Brady’s purpose is to illuminate the hardships of the perfect wife in order to raise consciousness for women's equality and create social change in American society. Based on her purposeful use of anaphora, catalogue, and pathos, Brady is writing for the feminist community of 1972 so that they may speed the word

Hope Edelman, a writer and mother, discusses her thoughts and experiences of the reality of marriage in, “The Myth of Co-Parenting: How It Was Supposed to Be. How It Was.” Edelman details how at the beginning of her marriage her husband was starting an internet business and had to take long hours causing Hope to cut hers in order to care for their child. Hope describes how she expected marriage to be a place where the spouses split homemaking and breadwinning equally. She quickly realized that that was not the case. Hope details how she became a primary housewife quickly and ended up becoming angry not doing what she wanted to do. Throughout, Hope asserts her anger and the situations she was put in that caused her frustration. By the end of

The American Dream is one that almost every American citizen has dreamt about at some point in their lives, however it is repeatedly destroyed in reaching it by the people who are so often known as the ones created to support them. An example of this is Fences, by August Wilson (1983), as it essentially describes family life, and how the dynamics of each family depends on how they treat each other and the circle of abuse. It is also an example of how the people who are the closest can either encourage their family members to go to their dreams, or completely crush them. They have the ability to do this due to their position, and because their opinion means more to the person whose dreams are in question. “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston supports

However, in the 1970’s people began to expand their horizon’s, and soon ventured out to explore other cultures; causing challenges towards the social movement on their views of a traditional family structure. This is why, “since the 1970’s three of the major shifts have occurred in family structure, gender roles, and economic concerns” (Jones, ASID, IIDA, IDEC and Phyllis Sloan Allen, 2009, p. 74). One of those changes were women decided to go to school to fulfill a higher degree, while awaiting giving birth to a child; or saying “I do” to their future loves. This putting a standstill in

In the 21st century, women must have a career and job to support a family compared to the 1950’s when women had the choice to be a stay at home mother or have a career. Spigel states, “Like Donna Reed, who sacrificed her nursing career for life with Dr. Alex Stone […]” (Spigel 224) the author is indicating that most women during the 1950’s decided to be a homemaker because that was what society expected of them. Television emphasized and valued the role of the ideal wife and a homemaker. Furthermore, TV shows like The Donna Reed Show illustrated wives to be marginal at home and central to the economy. Haralovich states, “In her value to the economy, the homemaker was at once central and marginal” (Haralovich 70). Basically, women’s labor in the home was highly valued and was given social satisfaction by consuming products to live the suburban American dream. However, women roles from today have changed due to the shift in gender roles in the American society. The “Study Date” episode of Good Luck Charlie is a perfect illustration of an ideal wife and women in today’s society. For example, Amy has to work, take care of her family, by cooking and cleaning. There is now a huge pressure for women to go to college, get a career, and to get married and raise a family. Women now are breadwinners and some men are stay at home dads. Due to economic pressures from society, both spouses have to work to maintain their family compared to the 1950’s where only one spouse could work and support a family. Both shows display the importance of society’s typical family structure and gender roles from each time period. In conclusion, there has been a dramatic shift in women’s roles in society today when compared to the

Judy Brady’s “I Want A Wife” is a revolutionary piece that attempted to reveal the unequal roles men and women held in society. She goes through her prose by listing all the responsibilities her wife must have and the ways to make her happy. Brady’s whole article is satirizing these roles and is, in general, very sarcastic in her tone. She mocks a society that has given women an impossible standard and she starts with the deprivation of her education then continues with the role her wife should play in domestic ways, and then finishes with the expectations the sexual aspects of their relationship. I believe that Brady’s underlying message was and still is important for the development of equality in our nation.

The focus of Good Wives by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is on the lives of colonial women from 1650-1750. Ulrich focuses on the daily lives of women and the role of women in their society. In Colonial America, the main role of women was to be a housewife. A housewife’s role was “defined by a space (a house and its surrounding yards), a set of tasks (cooking, washing, sewing, milking, spinning, cleaning, gardening), and a limited area of authority (the internal economy of a family)” (Ulrich 9). They also could stand in for their husband and his roles when necessary. The daily lives and roles of women in Colonial America reflect two main unique qualities of American life including women performing male duties and powerless women doing the essential work to sustain the family.

In the 1970’s women were expected to stay at home and take care of the household. They were usually not expected to further their education, but instead take care of the children or tend to their husbands’ needs. In 1972 Judy Brady decided to let the readers of Ms. Magazine know how she felt about her “duties”. In her short essay, “Why I Want a Wife,” Brady uses pathos to connect and appeal to the reader’s emotions while explaining why she wants a wife.

Mexican-Americans are the largest Hispanic group representing nearly 50 percent of the total Hispanic population and is the largest minority population in the U.S. (comprising 31.8 million). A record 33.7 million Hispanics of Mexican origin resided in the United States in 2012, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by Pew Research Center. By far the largest segment of the Hispanic population (61.2%) is of Mexican origin and resides primarily in the southwestern states of California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. Mexicans are by far the largest Hispanic-origin population in the U.S., accounting for nearly two-thirds (64%) of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2012(Gonzales, Applewhite, & Barrera, 2015).

During the 1890’s until today, the roles of women and their rights have severely changed. They have been inferior, submissive, and trapped by their marriage. Women have slowly evolved into individuals that have rights and can represent “feminine individuality”. The fact that they be intended to be house-caring women has changed.

She speaks of all the contribution most of the women make and that men never appreciate, things that men think are the obligation of the wife. For instance, the writer says, “I want a wife who will keep my clothes clean, ironed, mended, replaced when need be, and who will see to it that my personal things are kept in their proper place so that I can find what I need the minute I need it” (Brady 503). This explains that, men want everything to be done by their wife, so they can only have whatever they need without doing some effort. Another example the author gives is that men want everything from women to be done, even that women have the same rights and obligations as men. Making emphasis that some men are selfish and they want everything without give something in return. In addition, Brady says, “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” (502). This shows that men think only for themselves, they want to worry only for one things, and their wife need to take care of everything else. Overall, Brady’s goal is sow the readers that some women are treated without respect by men, leading in failure of