The Overwhelming Burden of a Wife

 In the recent weeks of AP Lang, we spent a great deal of time discussing a rather controversial yet intriguing topic: gender roles. One piece that especially sparked my interest was I Want a Wife by Judy Brady. In this piece, Judy discusses the overwhelming burden that a wife must carry through the satirical perspective of a husband’s demands: a wife that can cook, clean, take care of the kids, give up education, stay loyal, etc. By adopting the perspective of a demanding husband, she highlights how selfish and one-sided traditional marriage roles are. She isn't looking for a wife; she is exposing how much wives are exploited. 


After reading this piece, I was left in sheer awe with the burden of a wife. It left me in a state of true appreciation for women like my mother who do so much around the house. However, I hold just as much appreciation for my dad who encouraged my mother to pursue her dreams of being an engineer and who helps her around the house immensely. They rejected the typical gender role of a wife who is used as a tool and rather work together, something that I truly admire them for.  

Nevertheless, women are still exploited to this day, despite this piece being written in 1972. This exploitation of women in their traditional roles reminded me of a lyric from the song: Keep Ya Head Up by 2Pac. In the song, he says:  

You know me makes me unhappy? (What's that?) 
When brothas make babies 
And leave a young mother to be a pappy (oh, yeah, yeah, yeah) 
And since we all came from a woman 
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman (yeah, yeah) 
I wonder why we take from our women 
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women? (Why? Why?) 
I think it's time to kill for our women (why? Why? Why? Why?) 
Time to heal our women, be real to our women 

These lyrics hit me hard; they expose how society underappreciates the roles of women and embodies the message of I Want a Wife in modern form. Abuse isn’t always directly physical; it can be through abandonment or abuse of one’s role. We see this when 2Pac talks about how men leave women to burden their children and take from them. This “take” encompasses many aspects; whether it be a women’s education, dignity, time, etc. This song, along with Judy Brady’s piece, bring to attention the double standard and lack appreciation for women and their overwhelming burdens; something that society has yet to realize. 

Comments

  1. Vighnesh ChandaFebruary 22, 2026 at 12:41 PM

    I really like how you connected one of my fav 2Pac songs with gender roles, the message of "I want a wife" and "Keep ya head up" is truly sad and hard to talk about, yet you managed to convey that message in a clean and profound way. Good Job Solomon!

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