I Want A Wife, By Judy Brady

In the essay “I Want a Wife,” the author Judy Brady explores the gender roles of American women in the 1970’s by expressing the hardship and expectations placed on wives by their husbands in a casual demeanor. Brady explains the plentiful tasks a wife must do, all the while for ironically wishing for a wife for herself. She wrote the piece I Want a Wife to show men in the 1970’s their unrealistic expectations place on their wives and how their lives became completely useless outside of domestic activities, while women yearn to show their opinions and become something more than a wife. To convey these messages, Brady belittles the roles of women by being blunt in a subtle way; she understates everything. An example of this is when she writes,