Useful?
This lesson is suitable for the suggested topic 'language and gender', as it explores the meanings of
several words related to marriage and gender issues. As a learning outcome, you should come away
with an understanding that words can have different meanings within different contexts. Audience
and purpose are important concepts to shaping the meaning of the words in this essay.
Pre-reading
1. What kinds of associations do you have with the word 'wife'? Make a mind map or spider
diagram that explores all aspects being a wife.
2. Alternatively, you may want to create a Venn diagram with three bubbles: 1) wife, 2) mother
and 3) woman. How and where do they overlap. Which characteristics or traits would you
place in each bubble?
Critical reading
Judy Syfers was inspired to write this essay, 'I want a wife', after visiting a feminist conference in
1970. She wrote her piece and read it to a crowd in San Francisco on the 50th aniversary of
women's rights to vote. Her essay was reprinted in Ms. magazine in 1990. Read the essay below
and discuss the questions in light of your pre-reading exercises.
Why I want a wife
Judy Syfers
1970
[Show]
Discussion
1.
What does Judy Syfers mean by the word 'wife'?
How does this differ from your original interpretation of the word from the pre-reading
exercise? Furthermore how does Judy Brady comment on other words that you explored in
the pre-reading exercise, such as 'woman' or 'mother'?
2. How does Judy Syfers establish a narrative voice or sense of tone in this essay? What
linguistic devices, such as point of view, are used to place the reader in a certain mood?
3. Go beyond dictionary definitions to explain Syfers' use of these words: 'proper,' 'pleasantly'
(paragraph 4), 'bother', 'necessary' (paragraph 6), 'demand', 'clutter up' (paragraph 7),
'suitable', and 'free' (paragraph 8).
4. Discuss the use of pronouns in this essay. There seems to be an absence of 'he' or 'she'
when referring this 'wife'. Instead many sentence make use of the word 'who'. Why is this?
Who is 'I'?
Towards assessment
Written tasks - There are several creative tasks that you could write based on this essay. You may
decide to write a letter to Judy Syfers in response to her essay, explaining how views on women
have changed or remained the same since she wrote this essay in 1970. For the HL Written task 2,
you will find the 'power and privilege' area of study very relevant to this text. The first question
especially presents a lot of possibilities, 'How and why is a social group represented in a particular
way?'
Further oral activity - After exploring this text and several others from the 'language and gender'
topic, you could conduct a small debate with a classmate on the statement: 'Women are portrayed
more fairly today than 40 years ago.'