Judy Brady’s Legendary Feminist Satire “I Want a Wife” Essay Example

tasks. The underlying question of the essay was “Why?”

At the time, “I Want a Wife” had the humorous effect of surprising the reader because a woman was the one asking for a wife. Decades before gay marriage became a commonly discussed subject, there was only one person who had a wife: a privileged male husband. But, as the essay famously concluded, “who wouldn’t want a wife?”

Judy Brady was inspired to write her famous piece at a feminist consciousness-raising session. She was complaining about the issue when someone said, “Why don’t you write about it?” She went home and did so, completing the essay within a few hours. Before it was printed in Ms., “I Want a Wife” was first delivered aloud in San Francisco on Aug 26, 1970. Judy (Syfers) Brady read the piece at a rally celebrating the 50^th anniversary of women’s right to vote in the U.S., obtained in 1920. The rally packed a huge crowd into Union Square; hecklers stood near the stage as "I Want a Wife" was read.

Since “I Want a Wife” appeared in Ms., the essay has become legendary in feminist circles. In 1990, Ms. reprinted the piece. It is still read and discussed in women’s studies classes and mentioned in blogs and news media. It is often used as an example of satire and humor in the feminist movement. Judy Brady later became involved in other social justice causes, crediting her time in the feminist movement with being foundational for her later work.

Judy Brady does not mention knowing an essay by Anna Garlin Spencer from much earlier in the 20th century, and may not have known it, but this echo from the so-called first wave

of feminism shows that the ideas in "I Want a Wife" were in the minds of other women, too. In "The Drama of the Woman Genius" (collected in Woman's Share in Social Culture), Spencer addresses women's chances for achievement the supportive role that wives had played for many famous men, and how many famous women, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, had the responsibility for childcare and housekeeping as well as writing or other work. Spencer writes, “A successful woman preacher was once asked what special obstacles have you met as a woman in the ministry? Not one, she answered, except the lack of a minister's wife.”