Female Emancipation and the Glass Ceiling: I Want a Wife

 ‘‘I Want a Wife’’ written by Judy Brady, in 1971, after the Women’s Rights Movement began in the USA, is an important feminist statement that makes readers think and question the place of women in society. Brady tries to emphasize that women are not seen as equal to men and there are always invisible barriers (glass ceiling) around women in society by turning the topic into a satire and criticizing gender stereotypes. Brady empowers women to understand that in order to create equality and break the glass ceiling, perspectives should be changed and one should understand that being a woman should not only be limited to doing domestic duties.

Syfers, in her article ‘’ I Want a Wife’’, satirizes the views of the American society about the position of women and demonstrates a significant problem called ‘gender inequality, which is more evident in marriages since women and men are not trained to do some tasks and not expected to take some responsibilities. She explains that American society accepts that a woman has a number of duties that should be solely done by a woman as a mother and/or a wife whilst the same society does not oblige men to do these duties as a father and/or husband. 

A wife is expected to arrange her husband’s and her life, to take care of their children, to take the children to the school and the park, to help them with their homework, to cook, to wash clothes, to keep the house, and dishes clean. Moreover, a wife is also expected to be responsible for being sensitive to her husband’s sexual needs and being able to satisfy and meet her husband’s needs whenever her husband wants. She should not clutter up her husband’s life with jealousies and she must be careful about birth control if her husband does not want more children. Men do not care about these and they are usually disrespectful and neglectful. In this regard, Syphers gives an example from her own life in her article by speaking about one of her male friends who had divorced recently and has been looking for a new wife since then. 

Syfers’ article and second-wave feminism lead to a change in the role of women in American society while helping women to break both visible and invisible barriers around them. As their lives began to change with the impact of this article and the movement, American women were empowered to become more conscious about their rights. They established significant organizations such as National Organisation for Woman (NOW) and they were gathered in ‘‘Women’s Liberation Groups’’ and ‘‘Consciousness-Raising Groups’’ which eventually allow them to march together and protest in the streets of the United States of America. These gave them their opportunity to make sure that their voices are heard in public through word of mouth, speeches, journals et cetera. Through these reaching outs, women were able to achieve major achievements from which they were derived.

To put it briefly, Syfers’ article, inspired by second-wave feminism, affected feminist literature via further elaborating the glass ceiling in front of female emancipation and showing how it could only be lifted if women can see their true power and act accordingly.. ‘I Want a Wife’ is a satiric way to explain how women can do and achieve anything and yet how part of the American men is still not willing to accept this. Syfers’ article is an important literary work that reflects the understanding of its era and should be further studied to understand the present day.