Sexism and Gender Roles in the ‘70s Judy Brady, in her tongue-in-cheek essay, “I Want a Wife”, uses irony in a few different ways to address the issue of gender inequality in the spectrum of gender roles in the 1970’s and serves as a tool to grab the readers’ attention. It is also used to add humor and to expand a judgment of a man’s perspective on gender roles. She illustrates a male’s perspective of women in that era and the irony that existed between a man’s expectations of women and what was expected of him. She uses irony to address the lack of empathy men had towards their wives in regards to needs and desires. She indicates the irony of a wife contributing so much, yet there is still a low value or importance of a woman in a marriage
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Put into the proper context and era that this piece was written, it would appear to be a rather accurate portrayal of attitudes toward gender roles at the time. The author is a wife and mother, she establishes her credibility in the first couple of paragraphs of her argument. "I belong to that classification of people known as wives. I am A Wife, not altogether incidentally, I am a mother." which further demonstrates that not only does her being a wife make her creditable, but that she herself has been subjected to this type of discrimination and is able to speak from …show more content…
Perhaps the ultimate irony used is that, as portrayed in Brady’s essay, women were almost superhuman in the sheer magnitude of responsibilities required to be a wife and mother, yet as implied in the essay through the dictatorship of the gender roles, women were considered the inferior sex.
Judy Brady uses irony to address the issue of gender inequality in the marriage relationship in the 1970’s, to illustrates a skewed attitude toward women and the irony between a man’s expectations of women and vise versa, to address the lack of empathy men had towards their wives, and to indicates the demoralization of a woman in a male dominant
Put into the proper context and era that this piece was written, it would appear to be a rather accurate portrayal of attitudes toward gender roles at the time. The author is a wife and mother, she establishes her credibility in the first couple of paragraphs of her argument. "I belong to that classification of people known as wives. I am A Wife, not altogether incidentally, I am a mother." which further demonstrates that not only does her being a wife make her creditable, but that she herself has been subjected to this type of discrimination and is able to speak from …show more content…
Perhaps the ultimate irony used is that, as portrayed in Brady’s essay, women were almost superhuman in the sheer magnitude of responsibilities required to be a wife and mother, yet as implied in the essay through the dictatorship of the gender roles, women were considered the inferior sex.
Judy Brady uses irony to address the issue of gender inequality in the marriage relationship in the 1970’s, to illustrates a skewed attitude toward women and the irony between a man’s expectations of women and vise versa, to address the lack of empathy men had towards their wives, and to indicates the demoralization of a woman in a male dominant