Why I Want A Wife By Judy Brady

In the spring of 1971, Judy Brady wrote an essay in the first issue of the feminist magazine called Ms. Brady’s essay was titled “I Want A Wife” and she described the roles of a wife in the 1970’s. Brady also gave examples of how she wanted a wife because of everything that a wife takes care of. Brady gave examples of things that a wife would do in everyday life, as well as the roles of a wife in special situations, like at a dinner party or on a vacation. The way Brady described a wife was very powerful to feminists in the 70’s.

In “I Want a Wife,” Judy Brady shows her audience what it’s like to be a wife in the 1970s. In the situation she sets up, the husband is going back to school while the wife works and cares for the children. By recounting the wife’s many expected duties in a sarcastic tone, Brady is able to show the readers the unfair workload placed on wives at this time. In addition to these detailed responsibilities, Brady’s avoidance of pronouns when it comes to the word wife creates a disconnection from gender, allowing men to see the work as it is, without bias expectations.

During the feminist movement era of the 1970s, Judy Brady wrote I Want a Wife, which shows her frustration with all the demands she has as a wife. She sarcastically, but also seriously, explains the obvious differences and inequalities between husbands and wives. Brady writes her essay in first person from the view of a husband, outlining all the wants and needs he expects his wife to follow. She constantly repeats the phrase, “I want a wife who” in order to clearly get her opinion across about the roles of wives that continuously go unnoticed. She follows this phrase with various obligations she has as a wife in hopes to encourage wives to stop being taken advantage of.

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.

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.

“I want a Wife” is an essay written by Judy Brady in the 1970s for a magazine. The aim for the essay written was to show how oppressed women were during that time period and how badly they were treated by men. The essay was written during the early development of feminism. The article written aimed to raise the attention of readers during the time, introducing them to feminism. In writing the article for a Women’s magazine, Brady seemed to be sharing a similar frustration with other women who were in the same position as herself.

The feminist movement in the United States began in the early 1960’s and lasted till 1970’s. The reason of her feminist movement was to have women’s rights equal to the males. Judy Brady’s article “I want a wife”’ appeared on the Ms. Magazines issued in 1971 under her married name, Judy Syfers and printed in the spring 1972. The style of the article is using humor and ironic. In this article Brady is trying to convince the audience to look at a man’s point of view and what are their expectations of what he believes a wife should be or what a wife is. Brady article “I want a Wife” is highly effective she uses Pathos (Emotions) with her sarcasm and sense of humor on what she is trying to say, Ethos(credibility) she has been in that situation, and Logos(reasoning) she makes her point with utilization.

In paragraphs one and two, the author introduces herself and gives her explanation and reasoning for wanting a wife. Brady demonstrates her credibility in these paragraphs. “I belong to that classification of people known as wives. I am A Wife. And, not altogether incidentally, I am a mother.” Brady introduces herself as A Wife and a mother, showing her empirical knowledge. The author then capitalizes “A Wife” because she wants to emphasize and argue that she is a wife, not a servant or any other job description. By capitalizing these words she is showing that wives are no longer looked at as people, but as objects or as a type of job. She then begins to explain how she came about wanting a wife. “Not too long ago a male friend of mine appeared on the scene fresh from a recent divorce...He is looking for another wife. 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.” She employs irony thourgh this statement. Of course, she was ironing or doing chores because she is A Wife, that is what they are supposed to do. She shows a short glimpse at her job title and her job description.

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 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

When God created man He knew that the man would need a companion so he created the woman. In the 1970’s it was believed that the wife was supposed to do everything for her husband. The man went to work to provide for the family while the woman stayed home to care for the family’s needs- including children and the husband himself. The wife was merely a slave for the family and rarely did anything for herself. Judy Brady uses logos to connect with her audience in “Why I Want a Wife”.

Marriage is a union many Americans hope to enter in their life. While some marriages last a lifetime, some sadly end in divorce. I got the honor to interview a lovely couple who have been married twenty-five years and are still standing strong today.

The genre that most closely resembles the journal I chose is personal. The journal I chose was, "I want a wife" by Judy Brady. The journal was written in a non-formal style and it was written in first person. She uses dialogue and descriptive language to tell the audience what kind of person she would want as 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

In Judy Brady's essay “I Want A Wife” (1971), she presents the unrealistic expectations of a wife. Brady presents her idea with repetition of “ I want a wife..” expectations from the husbands to the wives, over statements and with rhetorical questions. Brady exaggerates a husband's expectations for the wives in order to persuade the audience to believe wives are mistreated and overlooked by their husbands. Brady addresses both husbands and wives in her essay by bringing attention the husbands and the mistreatment of the wives. Additionally, she also brings attention to their wives and the abuse they’re facing.