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Judy Brady's Legendary Feminist Satire, "I Want a Wife"

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B.A., English and Print Journalism, University of Southern California

One of the best-remembered pieces from the premiere issue of Ms . magazine is “I Want a Wife.” Judy Brady’s (then Judy Syfers) tongue-in-cheek essay explained in one page what all too many men had taken for granted about “housewives.”

What Does a Wife Do?

“I Want a Wife” was a humorous piece that also made a serious point: Women who played the role of “wife” did many helpful things for husbands and usually children without anyone realizing. Even less, it wasn't acknowledged that these “wife’s tasks” could have been done by someone who wasn’t a wife, such as a man.

“I want a wife who will take care of my physical needs. I want a wife who will keep my house clean. A wife who will pick up after my children, a wife who will pick up after me."

The desired wife tasks included:

Work to support us so I can go back to school
Take care of the children, including feeding them and nurturing them, keeping them clean, taking care of their clothes, taking care of their schooling and social life
Keep track of doctor and dentist appointments
Keep my house clean and pick up after me
See to it that my personal things are where I can find them when I need them
Take care of the babysitting arrangements
Be sensitive to my sexual needs
But do not demand attention when I am not in the mood
Do not bother me with complaints about a wife’s duties

The essay fleshed out these duties and listed others. The point, of course, was that housewives were expected to do all these things, but no one ever expected a man to be capable of these tasks. The underlying question of the essay was “Why?”

Striking Satire

At the time, “I Want a Wife” had the humorous effect of surprising the reader because a woman was the one asking for a wife. Decades before gay marriage became a commonly discussed subject, there was only one person who had a wife: a privileged male husband. But, as the essay famously concluded, “who wouldn’t want a wife?”

Judy Brady was inspired to write her famous piece at a feminist consciousness-raising session . She was complaining about the issue when someone said, “Why don’t you write about it?” She went home and did so, completing the essay within a few hours.

Before it was printed in Ms ., “I Want a Wife” was first delivered aloud in San Francisco on Aug 26, 1970. Judy (Syfers) Brady read the piece at a rally celebrating the 50 th anniversary of women’s right to vote in the U.S. , obtained in 1920. The rally packed a huge crowd into Union Square; hecklers stood near the stage as "I Want a Wife" was read.

Lasting Fame

Since “I Want a Wife” appeared in Ms ., the essay has become legendary in feminist circles. In 1990, Ms . reprinted the piece. It is still read and discussed in women’s studies classes and mentioned in blogs and news media. It is often used as an example of satire and humor in the feminist movement .

Judy Brady later became involved in other social justice causes, crediting her time in the feminist movement with being foundational for her later work.

Echoes of the Past: The Supportive Role of Wives

Judy Brady does not mention knowing an essay by Anna Garlin Spencer from much earlier in the 20th century, and may not have known it, but this echo from the so-called first wave of feminism shows that the ideas in "I Want a Wife" were in the minds of other women, too,

In "The Drama of the Woman Genius" (collected in Woman's Share in Social Culture ), Spencer addresses women's chances for achievement the supportive role that wives had played for many famous men, and how many famous women, including Harriet Beecher Stowe , had the responsibility for childcare and housekeeping as well as writing or other work. Spencer writes, “A successful woman preacher was once asked what special obstacles have you met as a woman in the ministry? Not one, she answered, except the lack of a minister's wife.”

Edited and with additional content by Jone Johnson Lewis

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clock This article was published more than 3 years ago

‘Why I Want a Wife’: The overwhelmed working mom who pined for a wife 50 years ago

A half-century ago, thousands of women’s liberation movement supporters packed into San Francisco’s Union Square. They joined about 100,000 more in cities across the country on Aug. 26, 1970, celebrating the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage in a protest called the Women’s Strike for Equality . It was in that public space, during the first major demonstration of the modern women’s movement, that the world first heard activist Judy Brady Syfers publicly long for a wife.

“I want a wife who takes care of the children when they are sick, a wife who arranges to be around when the children need special care,” the housewife from San Francisco read into the microphone, her hands shaking during her first time ever speaking in front of a crowd.

“I want a wife who will take care of my physical needs. I want a wife who will keep my house clean. A wife who will pick up after me,” she stated, appealing to all housewives around the country whose husbands took them for granted.

“I want a wife who takes care of the children when they are sick, a wife who arranges to be around when the children need special care, because, of course, I cannot miss classes at school,” said Brady Syfers, who was married to a professor at nearby San Francisco State.

“I was terrified,” Brady Syfers recalled in a 2007 NPR radio interview. “There were lots of hecklers — up near the stage I can remember hearing them as I read, which only egged me on.”

When she finished her list of sometimes sarcastic, sometimes funny, but very realistic demands, the crowd of women roared as they recognized themselves in her words. The short satire was mentioned in television, radio and newspaper reports about the demonstration across the country, she said in a 2005 taped interview with her daughter, Maia Syfers.

A mother's letter, a son's choice and the incredible moment women won the right to vote

After that exhilarating moment, the essay went on to define the women’s movement of the 1970s. It resurfaces often as a feminist classic — a treatise about an imbalance between the sexes that still resonates today as the country marks the 100th anniversary of suffrage.

Earlier this year, as parents struggled to home-school their children during the pandemic, the New York Times commissioned a poll by Morning Consult on the division of labor between couples. Nearly half of fathers with children younger than 12 said they were devoting more time to educating their kids than their spouses, but just 3 percent of women agreed with that assessment.

Fifty years ago, “Why I Want a Wife” started simply as a housewife’s complaints about the lack of recognition for women’s work.

In 1968, Brady Syfers was a faculty wife with two small children. The end of that year her husband got involved with a strike at his university, San Francisco State, that called for creating a Black and ethnic studies department at the majority White school.

Brady Syfers opened up her house as a fundraising headquarters for the strike . Week after week, she organized, fed and worked with the student and faculty strikers, from 7 in the morning until late into the night. For the first time in her life, Brady Syfers was politically active, and she loved it.

“It was exhilarating to be involved in something outside the four walls of my home,” she said in the NPR interview.

When the strike ended five months later — the longest student-led strike in U.S. higher education history — the Black Student Union had a meeting celebrating its win and to thank participants who worked on the strike. Her husband, James Syfers, was given a note of special thanks for raising money. But Brady Syfers was never mentioned.

Feeling angry and unappreciated, “I decided it was time for me to look for the women’s movement,” she said in the 2005 interview.

She found a nearby women’s consciousness-raising group at San Francisco’s Glide Memorial Church, where she met Pam Allen, now known as Chude Allen.

“When I first met Judy, she described herself as a disenfranchised and fired housewife,” Allen said in a phone interview. “She was angry.”

The more Brady Syfers began examining her role in society, the angrier she became. It wasn’t just being overlooked during the student strike. She had faced sexism her whole life.

During college at the University of Iowa, she studied painting and was quite talented, according to Maia Syfers. That’s where she met James Syfers, her future husband. After earning a BFA, she wanted to pursue a master’s degree. To do so, she had to go before a committee who would recommend her to further her studies. At the meeting, the all-male committee told her that she had the talent but that there wasn’t much purpose in going for a master’s — because no university would hire a woman.

She was devastated, her daughter said.

In consciousness-raising meetings at Glide, Brady Syfers began to describe what Betty Friedan’s pioneering book, “ The Feminine Mystique ,” called “the problem that has no name.”

“I was an isolated housewife who had never worked outside the house, and I was badly depressed, miserable and confused about it,” Brady Syfers said in 2007. “I had no idea why I was so depressed.”

Except for “The Feminine Mystique,” Brady Syfers said there was no language in the late 1960s to talk about female unhappiness.

“If you wanted to know anything about women, you went to the Ladies’ Home Journal. That’s all there was,” she said in 2007.

She explained that nothing was written for, by and about women’s collective experience — their history, their psychology, their daily lives. In 1969, the three-year-old National Organization for Women was still considered a small group, Brady Syfers said in 2005.

The bra-burning feminist trope started at Miss America. Except, that’s not what really happened.

The women’s movement of the early 1970s “was an outgrowth of the civil rights movement,” she said. “But it was very much kind of sub rosa. And of course, it was treated scathingly by men and the media.”

Consciousness-raising groups were mocked by men, but Brady Syfers said the sessions were defiant political acts.

Women around the country were pooling personal experiences to create a social, historical analysis of women’s condition. It was a revolution in thinking, she said. Soon a whole women’s press movement publishing feminist pamphlets and underground newspapers exploded around the country, led by the radical Redstockings group in New York.

It was at a consciousness-raising group that Brady Syfers began listing her grievances about the strains of being a housewife. As she talked, the list grew longer and longer until finally someone in the group challenged her to write it down.

So she went home and started writing. Two hours later, she had finished “Why I Want a Wife.” She presented it at the next group meeting, and members applauded. Brady Syfers was thrilled with the response.

“Why I Want a Wife” was first published in a Bay-area feminist underground newspaper called “Tooth and Nail,” according to Allen. The essay began being reprinted in other feminist underground presses across the country during 1970 and 1971.

Meanwhile, in New York activist Gloria Steinem and a group of feminists including Letty Cotton Pogrebin began collecting stories to include in a national magazine to unite and give voice to women’s liberation followers across the nation. In December 1971, the inaugural issue of Ms. Magazine appeared as an insert in New York magazine. That issue included “Why I Want a Wife.”

“We reprinted it so more readers could have the laughter and wisdom that comes from reversing unequal roles,” Steinem wrote in an email.

“I wish it weren’t still relevant but even though many marriages have become more equal, Judy’s words live on,” Steinem said.

“It had a seismic impact,” Pogrebin said in a phone interview. “It didn’t exaggerate what sex roles were all about. Women were expected to do it all.”

Pogrebin pointed out that the theme of “Why I Want a Wife,” which was changed to “I Want a Wife” in Ms., matched the cover of the inaugural issue, which showed a multi-handed Hindu goddess as a housewife juggling more tasks than were humanly possible.

After its publication in Ms., “Why I Want a Wife” became known around the world. “My mother always kind of joked a little bit about ‘Why I Want a Wife,’ because it became so popular,” Syfers said. “It’s paid royalties every year since it was published in Ms. and hundreds of books.”

Brady Syfers ended up getting a divorce years later and reverted to her original name, Judy Brady. She remained an activist in San Francisco the rest of her life, fighting for the rights of women, the disabled and breast cancer survivors. In May 2017, she died at age 80 and a memorial service at the Women’s Building in San Francisco celebrated her life of activism, Maia Syfers said.

“She was proud of ‘Why I Want a Wife,” but I think she was surprised at how iconic it became. She said it came right from her gut.”

I Want a Wife, The Wife Drought – 1970s feminism still rings true

PhD candidate, UNSW Sydney

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Isobelle Barrett Meyering does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

UNSW Sydney provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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Three years ago Annabel Crabb argued on ABC’s The Drum that a lack of wives is what really holds back women in the Australian workforce. She jokingly suggested that what was needed was a “wife quota”.

When my partner sent me a link to her column, I was more than pleased. Was he volunteering to be one of those men who would help fill the shortage? As a historian of 1970s feminism, I was also somewhat bemused.

Crabb’s article reminded me of a classic work of the American women’s movement written more than 40 years ago.

Judy Syfers’ short essay, I Want a Wife , was based on a speech Syfers (now Brady) delivered on August 26 1970 at a rally in San Francisco to mark the 50th anniversary of American women’s suffrage.

Syfers was a housewife, mother of two and recent recruit to the Californian women’s movement. Her essay began with a moment of revelation:

Not too long ago a male friend of mine appeared on the scene fresh from a recent divorce.

Conveniently, his child was now living with his ex-wife and, free of parental obligations, he was on the lookout for a new wife. And so came Syfers’ moment of recognition:

As I thought about him while I was ironing one evening, it suddenly occurred to me that I, too, would like to have a wife.

Syfers’ essay became an instant feminist classic. It was reproduced in Notes from the Third Year (1971), an important anthology of feminist works edited by New York activists Anne Koedt and Shulamith Firestone.

It also featured in the preview issue of the popular feminist magazine, Ms., which sold out in eight days after it was released on 20 December 1971.

And 40 years later, here was Crabb making much the same point. Since then, Crabb has gone on to write The Wife Drought , released in late September. Filled with personal anecdotes of juggling three kids and a career many would envy, the book is witty, heartfelt and informed by the latest research.

With her common touch and broad appeal, Crabb has made a timely contribution to the work-life debate.

But when I finally sat down to read The Wife Drought last week I was not so much bemused as bewildered to discover that it too contained not a single reference to I Want a Wife. Most reviewers of the book likewise seemed oblivious to the connection.

Only feminist stalwart Wendy McCarthy, one of the founding members of the New South Wales branch of the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) in 1972, seemed to know about Syfers’ article. Reviewing The Wife Drought for Anne Summers Reports, she reminisced over reading I Want a Wife for the first time.

Of all the articles in the original edition of Ms., it was “the piece that spoke to me”, McCarthy explained.

I was pregnant with my third child and working out the logistics of being wife, mother, teacher and community activist. Dear God, I needed a wife.

Writing in October this year, McCarthy found Crabb’s book “as loveable” as Syfers’ article, if “eerily scary that so little and yet so much has changed”.

If, like me, she was slightly perturbed that Syfers’ article seems to have been forgotten, she didn’t say so. To set the record straight, this is what Syfers had to say in 1971.

Like Crabb, Syfers set out to expose the taken for granted status of women’s work in the home. She set her sights not only on the invisibility of housework and childcare, but on the emotional and sexual labour of wives. Written in the early years of women’s liberation, the article was more scathing in its tone than The Wife Drought.

Husbands, it implied, were selfish, lazy and ungrateful. They were self-absorbed and altogether uninterested in their own children. To take just a few examples:

I want a wife who will take care of my physical needs. I want a wife who will keep my house clean. A wife who will pick up after my children, a wife who will pick up after me … 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 a special meal, serve it to me and my friends, and not interrupt when I talk about things that interest me and my friends … 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 …

The list of demands was relentless.

And the final punch line?

Wives, Syfers warned, were replaceable.

If, by chance, I find another person more suitable as a wife than the wife I already have, I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one.

I Want a Wife was a cutting piece of satire and the depiction of men was far from flattering.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that Syfers’ piece has been since overlooked. The failure to make a connection between Syfers’ article and Crabb’s The Wife Drought is symptomatic of a wider pattern in popular debate about feminism.

It reflects a tendency to forget past feminisms or, worse, misrepresent them – what historian Natasha Campo describes as the process of “re-remembering” feminism.

Tracing Australian media views of feminism from 1980 onwards, Campo has shown how key tenets of 1970s feminism have been misconstrued.

Feminists were blamed for telling women that they could “have it all” – a claim, as Campo points out, that was more a product of British journalist Shirley Conran’s bestseller Superwoman (1975) than of the organised women’s movement.

Ideas such as equal parenting, which had long been espoused by feminists, came to be presented as “new” solutions.

To her credit, Crabb is much more fair-minded in her treatment of past feminisms. For the most part, she refrains from blaming previous generations for the challenges now faced by women who seek to combine work and family. She also brings a historical sensibility to her work, examining past obstacles to gender equality such as the marriage bar in the public service, which remained in place federally until 1966.

Nonetheless, there is a missed opportunity here to link current dilemmas with those illuminated by feminists like Syfers in the 1970s. The parallel between Crabb’s The Wife Drought and Syfers’ I Want a Wife is a poignant reminder that the insights of 1970s feminism still have much to offer those concerned about gender inequality.

Some ideas may now be outdated and some may be outlandish. But many, like Syfers’ I Want a Wife, continue to ring true today.

Who knows what other feminist ideas might be overdue for a comeback?

Annabel Crabb

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Rhetoric Analysis “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady

Rhetoric Analysis “I Want a…

Judy Brady’s essay I Want a Wife generally applies several anecdotes to explore the demands of being a wife and gender roles and expectations. Speaking from her own experience, Brady is bitter about how demanding being a wife is and how the same demands are not expected of men. Overall, Brady’s concern is that the imbalance between gender roles and exaggerated expectations leaves women disadvantaged, hence emphasizing gender inequality within families and in society.

Brady applies satire to address the burdens of being a wife and make her argument compelling to evoke engagement in the audience. Besides, the author’s style and article’s structure combine ethos, pathos, and logos to address the overall theme of female suppression in society. Therefore, the author successfully appeals to the readers’ emotions, reason, and values, which garners sympathy for the author and women, especially when gender equality, women empowerment or suffrage, and the civil rights movement were a priority for society.

The author appeals to pathos to persuade the reader by purposely evoking sympathy and making them feel what the author feels about women being overburdened. Brady uses personal experience and a satirical tone to discuss the exaggerated expectations society expects from wives. The author’s concern is motivated by how easy it is for men to move into new marriages because they do not bear the same burdens and responsibilities as women.

Brady writes, “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 looking for another wife” (Brady). The male friend’s situation makes Brady realize that men expect so much from wives as the family’s support system, who have to take care of children, address familial needs, manage the household, and support the husband to achieve his dreams. The societal expectation of a wife to multitask and be indispensable to the man and the family is the source of Brady’s frustration, inviting the audience to see things from her point of view by appealing to pathos throughout the essay.

Brady also appeals to logic by appealing to the reader’s sense of reason particularly by providing facts. The examples the author provides are suitable for the overall argument and fit perfectly in the 1970s when the article was written. Men and society have various perspectives on the roles and responsibilities of wives even if the expectations suppress women more than men. Brady argues that marriage transforms men and women differently and the transformation disfavors the latter more. Women must take care of household duties, seek opinions from their husbands, fulfill all needs, be available and supportive, and be responsible wives.

The 1970s saw much of the women’s rights movement’s efforts and marches focus on pushing for gender equality in universities and workplaces. Feminists specifically sought more hospitable spaces for women and created more policies to create equal opportunities and ban sexual harassment. I Want a Wife contributed to the women’s suffrage protests in this period, although on a different front. The author’s realistic demands resonated with many women and defined the women’s movement as a feminist classic that highlighted gender imbalance, a problem that persists today.

Furthermore, the author appeals to credibility by tapping into the readers’ ideologies and values, especially dignity for all, feminism, and equality. Brady explores the various roles in different sectors in the essay but maintains the words “I want a wife” for each to highlight the sarcasm and humor to maintain the essay’s overall objective to sensitize the audience about female suppression. In the introduction, Brady uses her personal experience to get the audience to understand her general argument and to make her feelings about the issue known. In paragraph one Brady lists the maternal roles of a wife, including being an excellent nurturant, organizing the children’s social life, and addressing the children’s health needs, among others.

The second paragraph addresses the wife’s domestic roles, like cleaning the house, keeping clothes clean, ironing grocery shopping, and relieving her husband’s stress and pain. The third paragraph explores the wife’s mechanical responsibilities, where she has to understand and explain her husband’s difficulties and type papers the husband writes. In paragraph 4, Brady explains the social roles and expectations, including playing hostess to her husband’s friends, meeting the man’s acquaintances, and not interrupting conversations.

The sixth paragraph explores the wife’s sexual responsibilities, such as sexually satisfying the man, birth control, and remaining faithful. Lastly, Brady discusses the woman’s disposable or replaceable role in case the husband wants a new partner, including raising the children independently (Brady). The structure allows Brady to explore women as unequal partners in marriage and contribute extensively to the female suppression theme.

In conclusion, Brady combines personal experience, logic, and values to discuss a prevalent societal issue in I Want a Wife. Throughout history, society has laid out gender roles and expectations that favor men and suppress women. I Want a Wife is among feminists and women’s suffrage efforts to achieve gender equality and female empowerment. The essay, therefore, achieves the author’s overall objective of enlightening the audience about female suppression within the marriage scope and persuading them to see from her point of view to incentivize sympathy.

Brady, Judy. “Why I want a wife.” 75 Readings: An Anthology (1972): 325-327.

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Gender Studies: “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady Essay (Critical Writing)

Biographical information, general summary, relationship to today’s society, personal evaluation, terminology, works cited.

Judy Brady was born in 1937 in San Francisco, California. In 1962 she graduated from the University of Iowa and earned a bachelor degree in painting. She had been married for several years and had two daughters. In 1969 Judy Brady joined a women’s movement. Today she is known as a feminist author writing about such issues as gender roles, cancer, and environment protection. Judy Brady is an activist and a freelance author. She performed as an editor for “Women and Cancer” published in 1990 and “One in Three: Women with Cancer Confront an Epidemic” released in 1991.

She also worked at Greenpeace Magazine promoting various environmental issues of the modern days. Her essay called “I Want a Wife” was written in a satirical key and published in 1972. It first saw the world from the pages of “Ms. Magazine”. The essay reflected the lifestyle of a typical wife during the 1970s and was a very radical and fresh point of view for that time. Later, in 1990, the article was reprinted with a title “Why I Still Want a Wife” (Judy Brady, par. 1).

The essay “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady is designed to demonstrated the demands and pressure put on married women by their husbands and the society. The author shows what men want to see in a good wife. She writes, “I want a wife who will take care of my physical needs. I want a wife who will keep my house clean. A wife who will pick up after my children, a wife who will pick up after me”(Brady, par. 4). The author skillfully employs the device of repetition in order to emphasize all the multiple duties a wife has.

Brady’s writing shows the one-sided perspective on the structure of the household and family life. By means of rhetorical strategies such as repetition, complex sentences and definition, the author delivers her point of view on the male way of thinking (Laury, 22). Using satire, Brady shows how unrealistic husband’s expectations of a perfect wife can be. She writes, “I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling complaints… But I want a wife who will listen to me” (Brady, par. 5). The author portrays a family life as a very unfair and uneven relationship, where a woman has to take care of her children, her house, her work, her husband and all of his needs and desires.

Brady’s essay is built in a way that, basically, makes a husband look like another child a woman is to tend to, he is shown as a person who cannot or will not take care of himself because this is not his duty. Brady’s essay matches the duties of the husband against the duties of the wife showing that a woman’s everyday life is cluttered with a large range of obligations, rules and limitations in order to fit into the image of a good wife.

Gender roles and marriage today are very different from what they used to be several decades ago, a woman is no longer seen as an attribute of her man, at the same time, even today there are still people that believe that a woman’s main function is to be a good wife.

It is a well known fact that old fashioned idea about marriage and the roles of the spouses in it was very different from the contemporary one. A wife was seen as a mainly domesticated person was not supposed to have a career of her own. Her main duties were to solely take care of the children, and make sure that the house is clean and the husband is happy. This image of a good wife started to be widely promoted after the end of the Second World War.

For the period of the war, when men were gone, women had to take over most of the male jobs (Stoneham, par. 1). After the war was over and men came back, women started to be persistently encouraged to abandon their careers and become housewives. Television played a big role in the process of promotion of the female adherence to her new role airing advertisements and TV shows such as “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”, where Harriet was either shown making food or serving it.

Many women had to become housewives and play the role of Harriet in real life. As a result, their sons grew up having an idea that this kind of behavior was the only right function for a woman. Their first and most important example of a female in the house was their mother, whose role was limited to tending to the house, making and serving meals, constantly cleaning up and selflessly making sure that the husband is happy, rested and comfortable all the time. Judy Brady’s essay points out that a woman has to be working non-stop even when the family is going to the nature to relax or when they are enjoying the company of guests.

The generations of men that were born and raised in such families naturally believe that women were meant to be wives and wives were meant to take care of their husbands and homes. Feminist movements that started to massively occur in the United States and Europe during the 1960’s shifted the common perception of gender roles and functions and caused multiple debates and disagreements. Logically, most men were unhappy with such course of events and turned against feminism. Besides, many women were used to their typical roles and afraid of the new opportunities and responsibilities, this is why they never sympathized with any women’s movements.

Judy Brady’s essay is certainly a very powerful work presenting a new for that time perspective on the duties of men and women in the society. “I Want a Wife” is written from the point of view of a woman overloaded with responsibilities, housework and her job. This woman states how convenient it is to have a wife that is to eagerly make sure that you are all the time happy, rested, comfortable and satisfied. The author notes that under these circumstances she would like to have a wife too. Brady appropriately employs the rhetorical strategy of repetition to emphasize the never-ending to-do list of a wife. The enumeration of a woman’s duties is given from the male point of view satirically noticing how spoiled and picky some men became provided with all the freedom and power of being a husband and a man in the society.

adherence (n) –fidelity, devotion
clutter (v) – to fill something with many things
eagerly (adj) – in a very excited and interested way
incidentally (adv) – by the way
mend (v) – to fix
monogamy (n) – a custom of being married to only one person
solely (adv) – only or just
sympathize (v) – to feel compassionate or sorry

Brady, Judy. I Want a Wife . n. d. Web.

Judy Brady. McGraw Hill . 2003. Web.

Laury, Jabriel. “I Want a Wife”. Literary Café . Ed. James Madison High School. Raleigh, North Carolina: Lulu, n. d. 22. Print.

Stoneham, Nina. Women’s Roles in the 1950s . n. d. Web.

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Gender Studies: "I Want a Wife" by Judy Brady." October 30, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/gender-studies-i-want-a-wife-by-judy-brady/.

Gender Roles in Brady's and Theroux's Works
I Need a Wife by Judy Brady
Family Issues in "I Want a Wife" by Judy Brady
Gender Roles in Brady’s “Why I Want a Wife” and Sacks’ “Stay-at-Home Dads”
Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” and Brady’s “I Want a Wife”
"I Want a Wife" by Brady
Brady Campaign: Preventing Gun Violence
"Rethinking the Sociological Measurement of Poverty" by Brady
Brady Act Homicide and Suicide Associated Rates
The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act
Gender Representation: Equilibrium in Political Systems
The Global Women's Movement
Sexual Desire and Gender: Masculinity and Femininity Roles
Female Leader Challenges in Saudi Arabia
Understanding the Social Element in Gender Roles

Literal Analysis of “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady

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“I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady was published in 1971 when the feminist movement was a strong political force. The role of women in the home has been a point of great debate since the establishment of the feminist movement up to date. The author of the essay, Brady is a female, and she expresses how the rights of the women are neglected in the community by being overburdened by house responsibilities. In “I Want a Wife,” Brady focuses on the subject of traditional roles of a wife within the home set up. Brady’s audience is women, and she sheds light on women in the unfairness that exist in the role of women and husbands in a marriage relationship. The topic of the role of women is relevant in the modern world in ensuring that gender equality is attained. Judy Brady uses satire, humor and other literal devices to encompass the notion that wives are slaves to their husbands.

Judy Brady uses literal devices in her essay to make the essay interesting to the audience, and emphasize the key points. The author uses satire in the essay to indicate that with the set standard on the role of a wife, then everyone will want a wife. The satirical tone is used to ridicule society’s standards that are set for women. “My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?” (Brady, 776). The satirical tone is used by the author through the entire essay to show how women rights are neglected in society, which is the theme for the essay. The author repeats the statement “I Want a wife” again and again throughout the essay. The clause is repeatedly used to stress on the role of a wife in the community, which is the major aim of the essay by Judy Brady. Brady also exploits exaggeration in her essay to drive her points to the audience. “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” (Brady, 776). The statement shows that the role of the women in the marriage relationship is to listen without complaining whereas the role of the husband is to dictate instructions. The statement exaggerates on the unfairness of the roles between husband and wife to make a point of unfairness more apparent to the reader. The author exploits satirical tone in the essay to reveal how women are misused by their husbands.

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In her feminist essay, Judy Brady uses satirical tone through the whole piece to shed light on how some husbands mistreat their wives by assigning them excess extra housework. According to the essay, wives should do all the housework without any support from the husband or house helps (Beck, 117). The wife is expected to keep the house clean, clean the children, to feed the children, and to take care of the children medical needs. Also, the author highlights that the wife is responsible for providing all the needs of the children. “ Needless to say, my wife will arrange and pay for the care of the children while my wife is working” (Brady, 775). The statement shows how wives are taken as slaves by their husbands by being forced to perform all the house activities that include taking care of the children, and at the same time working. Since the publishing of the essay, the essay remains significant to modern society as the housework is burdening the wives in marriage The author of the essay states how women are forced to miss their jobs so that they perform physical house activities. “My wife can arrange to lose time at work and not the job.” The author states that she cannot miss her class, but her wife should miss some job time to take care of the children and some other home activities. The author uses these illustrations to indicate how wives are misused in the community by being burdened with all the family’s responsibilities. Judy Brady in her essay uses diction to ensure that the role of women in the community is properly understood by her audience.

The author uses diction in the essay to avoid complex jargon so that the importance of feminism movement is clearly understood by her audience. The main aim of Judy’s essay was to shed some light to her audience who were the women on how their husbands were misusing them due to lack of strong feminism movements. The author shows how a lack of organizations to advocate for the rights of the female gender affects the economy of a society. The economy of the country depends on how the community works fair in their jobs. Judy shows how wives are forced to miss their jobs so that they can perform other house daily chores. “My wife can arrange to lose time at work and not the job” (Brady, 775. The author uses this statement to show how husbands overload their wives with house chores such that they cannot make an appearance at workplaces, which affects the economy if the country. Also, the author in her essay “Why I Want a Wife” shows how husbands violated the rights of the women in the society where feminism movements do not exist. The author reveals how wives in the community are expected to work so hard to ensure the comfort of their husbands who do not even respect the wives. In the essay, the author shows how husbands expect their wives to be faithful. “I want a wife who will remain sexually faithful to me so that I do not have to clutter up my intellectual life with jealousness.” In the other hand, the husbands do not expect their wives to bother about their social lives. “I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one.” The statements show how women are treated as minors in the community where they do not have any say rather than to obey what their husbands say. Feminism movements are essential in ensuring that the rights of women in the community are obeyed. The author uses statements and illustrations in the essay “Why I Want a Wife” to show how a lack of feminism movements crates gender inequality in the community. The author uses different paragraphs to separate her ideas on how women are being mistreated in society.

In the essay “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady, the author organizes her about the role of women by use of paragraphs. Each paragraph in the essay addresses a specific idea about the role of wives in a marriage set-up. Brady uses a topic sentence at the start of each paragraph, which helps her audience to know the issue being addressed in each paragraph. The first sentence in each paragraph declares the topic of the paragraph. Paragraph one discusses how wives support those who are dependent upon them. Brady narrates that she wants a wife who will be able to provide all the needs of her children. In the second paragraph, the author discusses how the wife should take care of the family’s physical needs. The topic sentence of the second paragraph is “I Want a wife who will take care of my physical needs” (Brady, 776) The author then goes ahead to discuss the physical needs that she expects her wife to take care. In paragraph four, the essay states how the wife should react toward the social life of the author. The author then goes ahead to discuss in the sexual needs she requires from the wife. Therefore, Judy Brady uses different paragraphs to discuss her ideas towards the role of the wives in the community. The author uses satire, repetition and other literal devices in the essay “I Want a Wife” to emphasize the key points.

In summary, the essay “I Want a Wife” was published in 1971 when the feminist movement had become a strong political force. The author of the essay, Judy Brady, played an important role in 1960’s feminism movement. The aim of the essay was to show women the need for feminism movements by highlighting how the rights of women are being neglected. In the essay, Judy Brady shows how the rights of women are neglected by being overburdened by all the responsibilities of the family. Satire, repetition, and exaggeration are literal devices used in the essay to emphasize the notion that wives are slaves to their husbands. The clause “I want a wife” is repeatedly used in the essay to emphasize the duties expected on wives. The author uses satirical tone in her essay to show unfairness that exists in the division of home roles between wives and husbands.

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Home / Essay Samples / Literature / I Want a Wife / The Meaning Of Being A Wife In I Want A Wife By Judy Brady

The Meaning Of Being A Wife In I Want A Wife By Judy Brady

Category: Literature
Topic: I Want a Wife

Pages: 2 (980 words)

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