Over the course of many years, women have struggled to expand their roles and rights in society, hoping to one day achieve complete equality with their male counterparts. Two women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady, both recognized the patriarchal society in which women had to endure. They despised the way it heaped inequality and servitude upon women, and decided to assert their opinion on the issue in order to change the perceptions and imposed limitations on women. In Stanton’s speech, “Declaration of Sentiments”, and in Brady’s article, “I Want a Wife”, both women attempt to convince their audiences that females deserve complete equality with men by stating the submissive situations and obligations women find themselves immersed in. This is done to get their female audiences to reevaluate how they have been treated and give them a second chance at attaining equality. Both women employ various rhetorical techniques in their arguments to strengthen, as well as compel other women to oppose the ‘domesticated’ image of women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady expressed their views in pursuance of forging a path to a revamped lifestyle for women. In Judy (Syfers) Brady’s article, “I Want a Wife”, she expresses her opinions in a satirical commentary that offers hypothetical criteria for an ideal wife, with an underlying message that deals with how people should be grateful for all of the deeds and chores that women do. Brady utilizes the strategy of
“The Declarations of Sentiments and Resolutions” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton is an interesting and persuasive essay on women's rights and equality. The essay uses pathos, logos, and ethos to capture the reader's attention and draw them in into this argumentative piece. Each appeal deeply exercises the importance of equality for both men and women. Throughout her essay, Stanton uses pathos, logos, and ethos to draw the reader's attention and persuade them to stand up for women inequality.
She essentially discusses how she does all of these things, but doesn’t get much in return. Another example of pathos in this essay is when she talks specifically about the sexual relationship that a wife and husband have. “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 will not demand sexual attention when I am not in the mood for it.” In this quote, Brady compares the sex that a wife has with her husband to another chore that she does. She shows that there is no mutual emotion or desire between them and that it is more of a duty of a wife rather than a pleasure. Essentially, she compares herself and any other wife to a sex puppet who is just there to service the husband with little to no joy. These two examples make the reader sympathize with Brady and the common housewife because of all of the responsibilities that they have as well as how they get little to no pleasure out of what they have to do. Lastly, Brady’s hasty tone shows her resentment towards divorced men as well as men in general. This allows the audience to understand her feelings on the topic of gender dynamics and it forces the audience to feel that way too.
In Judy Brady’s essay, “I Want a Wife,” she examines why she would like to have a wife. Brady believes that a wife performs all house chores and the husband does nothing, but to expect the wife to do everything for him. Brady tries to persuade the reader to look at a husband viewpoint of what a wife should be. The essay was written during the early 1960’s, during the second wave of the feminist movement in America. Brady is pushed by certain reasons to write, “I Want a Wife” to show the humanist humor.
1. Analyze Stanton 's use of induction and deduction to support her claim and develop the argument. 4-5 paragraphs.
In the 1970’s the average family had a wife that would take care of all of the cooking, the cleaning, everything concerning their kids, and even caring for her husband too. They did all of this without complaining, while their husband was at work. In those times nothing less was expected from them. In the article “Why I Want a Wife” Brady uses ethos, logos, and pathos to illustrate her opinion of what a wife do in a marriage, in which she infers that wives do too much for their families.
In the Declaration of Sentiments, author Elizabeth Cady Stanton expresses her anger of the oppression experienced by women in the United States. After being rejected to attend the World’s Anti-Slavery convention in London, Stanton was frustrated because she was being rejected for being a woman. This motivated Stanton to share her own ideas on advocating women’s rights and changing the way women are treated in society because of the mistreatment done to her, as well as many women across the nation waiting for their voices to be heard. Stanton parallels the Declaration of Sentiments with the Declaration of Independence by using laws that the male population regarded as righteous and including how it had negative effects on over half the American population. This put into question male authority and supremacy, creating a more concrete argument by revealing what men already have under the law, to what women should have. The sophistication of the Declaration of Sentiments to a document that the U.S. government values highly, threatens the values of the U.S. by making women’s rights a more pressing issue. The Declaration of Sentiments targeted the U.S. government and the population by appealing to their own opinions and beliefs in order to recognize that women were being treated like second-class citizens. Although the Declaration of Sentiments never made a significant impact on the
In paragraphs three through seven, Brady provides the reader with what she desires in a wife. Through repetition and tone, she shows the reader the unrealistic roles of a wife.
Various of the resolutions that the Declaration of Sentiments proposed, were based off of the Law of Nature, and unfortunately did not come true by the time that women received the right to vote. The Law of Nature, also known as the Natural Law, was an observable phenomenon (an empirical truth) within society. The author of involved in writing the Declaration of Sentiments, Elizabeth cast Stanton, “Resolved, That such laws as conflict, in any way, with the true and substantial happiness of woman, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and of no validity; for this is "superior in obligation to any other” (“Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions”). The percept of nature states that “men shall pursue his own true substantial happiness.” Society has a strict social contract that conflicts with the proposed happiness of women, beyond women just gaining the right to vote with the admission of the 19th amendment in 1920, legally women were still incapable making decisions in their own lives. It became clear that the battle for rights would get ugly, but females were always wanting more in the decision of how their lives would be conducted. The demands of the women, would come at a price, that the majority were willing to pay.
In her essay, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Margaret Fuller discusses the state of marriage in America during the 1800‘s. She is a victim of her own knowledge, and is literally considered ugly because of her wisdom. She feels that if certain stereotypes can be broken down, women can have the respect of men intellectually, physically, and emotionally. She explains why some of the inequalities exist in marriages around her. Fuller feels that once women are accepted as equals, men and women will be able achieve a true love not yet known to the people of the world.
Throughout the years, women have been seen as someone to have children, someone to cook, someone to clean, and someone who does not deserve rights. In the essay "I Want A Wife," Judy Brady points out the different roles of a "wife" according to society at that time. I believe that Brady is sarcastically describing the ideal wife every man dreams of. Even though, women have been fighting for their rights for a long time now, even today women are still not equal to men in many ways. In today's society women are more respected and are acceptable for many jobs as men are, but still they are not treated equally all the times. Brady is a wife herself, and in her essay she wishes she had a wife that she described. Brady brings out all the
In the beginning when Adam was created, God knew man needed a woman to fulfill the Earth so he made Eve. The household perception of society in the 1970’s was that men needed a woman to do everything for him. A husband went to his job and did nothing while his wife ran the household, cared for their children, including the husband himself. The wife rarely had time for herself and acted as a slave for her family. Judy Brady uses logos to connect with her audience in “Why I Want a Wife”.
Despite revealing the inequality in society for women, Margaret tries to put an end to the inequality between men and women by describing marriages where both partners are mutually respected. For example, she feels that the ideal marriage is “one of mutual esteem, mutual dependence. Their talk is of business, their affection shows itself by practical kindness” (739). Fuller believes that “mutual esteem” and “mutual dependence” lead to a relationship of equality between a man and woman. She also believes that the couple must not only have mutuality but “affection” in order to maintain equality. In addition, she feels marriages of mutuality and mutuality and affection “meet mind to mind, and a mutual trust is excited, which can buckler them against a million” (742). The author uses this passage to show that
In the 1970’s many women rights activists were fighting for equal treatment from their male counterparts. These ladies held rallies, preformed walks and wrote articles in magazines all to help aid the movement. Judy Brady ,a writer for Ms.Magazine, is one women's rights activist who published an essay ,entitled “Why I Want a Wife”, about how she believes women are under appreciated. By using pathos, Judy Brady explained the unfair roles of women, specifically wives, in her essay “Why I Want a Wife”.
In Judy Brady’s article “I Want A Wife”, she uses repetition greatly in her essay to make her point, why wouldn’t anyone want a wife. Judy Brady was born in 1937 in San Francisco and got a B.A at the University of Iowa in 1962. Brady’s article first appeared in the feminist magazine Ms., which was in Arlington County, Virginia in 1972. The author’s main idea was to show the amount of work that a wife is expected to do. She does this by strategically listing out what she looks for in a wife. She constantly says, “I want a wife”, to signify that she wants someone to do these things for her as she has done for her husband. In today’s society, the wife is seen as the caretaker and doer of all businesses, while still catering to a
Judy Brady has strong beliefs in regards to societal standards, specifically the unrealistic pressures forced upon women. Within her essay “I Want a Wife”, Brady emphasizes the ridiculousness of the extremely high standards women are expected to follow without resistance. In order to get the point across clearly, she creates a sarcastic tone through diction and repetition.