Composition I Wives of Today and Yesterday Television shows throughout the 1950s and 1960s like The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, and All in The Family accurately depicted the domestic role for American wives at the time. Judy Bradys classic 1971 article, I Want a Wife, describes in detail the roles and expectations for wives back then. The roles and expectations of wives began to change, however, during the 1970s and early 1980s with women becoming more of an equal partner with their husbands, and husbands taking on more of the traditional roles of the wife. In her article, Brady lists numerous cleaning and cooking duties a wife was expected to fulfill in the home during that era. Ironing, washing, and mending clothes were solely the...