Introduction
The traditionally dominating role of women was as housewives and submissive, while it was the husband’s role to focus on family maintenance and work. However, due to the evolving world, the social role of women has been changing from traditional roles whereby women can pursue their professions while men take care of household duties. This study will analyze the novel “The Stepford Wives,” which depicts that men married to women in a patriarchal society prefer submissive domestic robots over their once intelligent and opinionated wives due to feeling weak and incapable of being powerful men without their wives outshining them.
Main body
When women get empowered, men feel threatened as they believe they have to be superiors in the family and societal setup. The novel Stepford shows how Walter, a lawyer, and his wife move to the suburbs, where wives are made into robots that are submissive to their husbands. Walter joins the Men’s Association Committee and finds out that it enables the men in the community to silence their women and make them submissive to their ideas (Levin 14). However, Joanne proves to have a different opinion when she tells of her plans to dethrone the president of the men’s association, Dala Diz. Additionally, she wants to develop a teenager and parent forum in the school auditorium. This move is seen as a threat to the men’s association since by silencing the Men’s Association chairman, Joanne will end their domination and opened a platform for women to voice their interests, empowering the female gender. A study by Schuler et al. shows that men are resistant to symbolic factors to gender equality because they feel it is a threat to their status (9). Even in poor societies hat men allowed their wives to be the economic providers, they still wanted to preserve their power and dominance. When men lose the power to control their wives, they are considered worth nothing in society (Schuler et al. 10). Therefore, there is still societal pressure for men to maintain dominance over women. Men feel threatened when women are elevated to power like Joanne wanted to do in the suburb. Hence, married men will prefer submissive domestic robots over intelligent and opinionated wives who challenge their power and dominance.
Men do not like their wives interacting with other women who have ideas about dominating the male culture. Information is power, and therefore allowing their wives to interact with other women with different opinions about their submissiveness can change their thoughts. When Joanne moves into the new suburb, she clarifies her intentions to create a gender-equal society. She meets two friends, Charmaine Wimperis and Bobbie Markowe, who join her in creating the women’s associations (Levin 68). However, when their husbands notice this, they take their wives on vacation, and on coming back, their perspective changes, and they become submissive. Schuler et al. study shows that men expressed resentment when the government provided job opportunities to women, which allowed them to interact and discuss empowerment issues (9). According to the study, when women get government jobs, they are more likely to change their perspectives regarding submissiveness. Men preferred their families to stay in poverty than for their wives to be employed by their government (Schuler et al. 10). This shows the insecurities that men have regarding the interaction of women on empowerment issues. They are aware when women interact with others; they can be easily influenced and change their submissiveness. Therefore, it is evident that married men in the patriarchal society prefer submissive women over intelligent and opinionated wives, even if it means their families stay in poverty instead of the wives becoming the economic providers.
Men can do anything to change their women into their desired character. That is why the Men’s Association was willing to sacrifice the lives of their wives and change them into robots. This is shown in the part where Joanne stabs Bobbie with a knife, and she does not bleed (Levin 148). Bobbie instead goes to a mechanic and is repaired back to normal. This scene is set in the novel to show that men in the suburb society, especially those in the Men’s Association, had killed their wives and replaced them with robots. In the text by Schuler et al., men are likely to engage in violence when they feel that their wives do not respect them (5). These violent acts may lead to men hurting their wives or even killing them. However, men still engage in violent actions despite the consequences, including jail terms. This indicates that men are willing to lose their freedom or even the lives of their wives to command submissiveness.
Men know that they are incapable of being powerful when their women outshine them. In the novel, men use their efforts to ensure that their wives do not outshine them. Some of the men’s activities to their wives to ensure that they do not outshine them include turning them into robots, making them housewives, and ensuring that women do not form any organizations to empower themselves. Additionally, men have created a men’s association to come together and empower themselves. Women in the novel are not allowed to pursue their careers because economic power would give them the ability to outshine their husbands. Schuler et al. state that men were always worried when the government gave their wives job opportunities because this could empower them (10). The male state that if 20 women went looking for a job in the factory and 20 men went to the same factory looking for a job, the women have a higher chances of getting the job compared to the male. “If things were like before, I mean if the government hadn’t facilitated so many job opportunities for women, then they would still have to follow their husbands’ wishes” (Schuler et al. 10). This shows that men are afraid of women getting jobs because they become more intelligent and will not be submissive to their husbands.
Conclusion
Violence and single parenting are major issues in the current society as a result of women empowerment. Marriages have become a matter of the past whereby most people do not consider being married or marrying in their lives. All this can be attributed to gender equality whereby women have been empowered and, therefore, men feel threatened to marry them. Women are now more independent and do not need to depend on men for their survival unlike in the past which is causing the issue of single parenting to increase. On the other hand, men are not willing to settle with women who do not respect them and therefore they prefer to stay single. Instead, men prefer submissive domestic robots over their once intelligent and opinionated wives due to feeling weak and incapable of being powerful men without their wives outshining them.
Works Cited
Levin, Ira. The Stepford Wives. Michael Joseph, 1972.
Schuler, Sidney Ruth, et al. “Men’s Perspectives on Women’s Empowerment and Intimate Partner Violence in Rural Bangladesh.” Culture, Health & Sexuality, vol. 20, no. 1, 2017, pp. 113–27, Web.