Wife" by Judy Brady and Essay

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And it is insulting to women. Caroline Forell, an expert on women's legal rights and a professor at the University of Oregon School of Law, puts it bluntly: 'Failing to require this of women makes us lesser citizens'" (Quindlen 2001).

At first Brady's essay may seem an artifact of a time long past, when women had few opportunities for advancement. Yet her words forcefully remind the reader that the common image of the idyllic gender-divided household was profoundly inequitable. It was not that women did not work and serve, but rather their service and work -- at home, for men -- often went unacknowledged. "I would like to go back to school so that I can become economically independent, support myself, and, if need be, support those dependent upon me. I want a wife who will work and send me to school" Brady writes (Brady 1971). In other words, during the era when women 'did not work' they were working, to help men get more lucrative careers, but not for themselves. Why should women fight in the military, Brady might playfully protest, in keeping with the tone of her article, when their income is only a fraction of a man's, even today? But at least women and men who serve in the military in a relatively more equitable America are honored, unlike the type of wife Brady likely was until her consciousness was raised.

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Brady's paradigmatic perfect wife is always taken for granted, and demands nothing in return. Quindlen's ideal woman is willing to give her service, but also demands a great deal of the country for which she is willing to die to protect.

Admittedly, Brady's concerns are more personal than Quindlen's. Some of her issues are even more timeless than questions of policy. Brady notes how women sacrifice their personal dignity, careers, and sense of identity to men. Husbands are not required to do their share of the 'dirty work' around the home, assume no responsibilities for childcare, demand a public posture of submissiveness from their wives, and want wives to make a complete 'study' of a husband's likes and dislikes. Military service seems almost easier than the feminine perfection chronicled by Brady, but many of the social expectations she chronicles are still extant, even if women have more opportunities for professional advancement than taking menial jobs to support a husband while he is in school.

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