Judy Syf's 'Why I Want A Wife'

In the seventies, women fought hard to escape the misogyny of men and fought to be treated with equal respect. Judy Syfers’ Why I Want a Wife highlighted many of the struggles women had gone through when all they could accomplish in life was being a housewife. Syfers’ clever use of irony, repetition, and tone illustrate her belief in women’s oppression in society. Getting treated like an object and feeling expendable is not something Syfers wanted to endure any longer, and clearly shows it in her essay. Although it seems like Syfers is just going off on a tangent about her life, in reality, she is strategically using an extensive amount of irony to support her ideas. Irony is used so frequently that it could be found right away in the title, “Why I want a Wife”. Readers would immediately assume that a man is the one writing this essay when in reality, it’s a woman being sarcastic. Syfers used the irony to prove how unfairly women were treated on a day to day …show more content…
Syfers explains how women are expendable in a man’s head. She states, “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.” If her life doesn’t revolve around her husband’s, she is no use to him. Even if they have children together, the men do not hesitate to abandon their wives for someone “better”.
In Judy Syfers’ Why I Want a Wife, clearly depicts the unfair manner in which men treat their wives. The women are expected to work, take care of the children, and take care of their husbands like maids, as if taking care of children wasn’t already enough. Syfers’ essay uses figurative language like irony, repetition, and mood to demonstrate to her audience the treatment and the lack of respect women receive on a daily basis. She also establishes her belief in feminism and empowerment within