Wifery

Last of all is the girl who isn’t often heard from, the happy young woman who is really fulfilled by motherhood and wifery, and who may dip into one or all of the above five options from time to time, but only for fun.

Mary: Maybe I should never have married, never had children—but those possibilities didn’t exist in the world in which I grew up. […] Linda: We were taught that motherhood and wifery are so fulfilling, and then we had to learn to live with the secret guilt when they weren’t fulfilling.

He cannot help observing that she, however dwindled her love for her cuckolded husband, is securely attached to the social role and domestic furniture that come with her wifery.

Eventually, if a woman were sufficiently wealthy, her wifery could be constructed on terms in which her husband was not the recipient of her labor.

‘She should find a good day-care centre and go back to work, even if it’s only part-time. Or do some voluntary work, if she doesn’t need the money. She needs adult company occasionally. And challenges outside of motherhood and wifery.’

Outside of the reality of my parents' relationship, I didn't see many examples of enviable wifery.

Literary works of the fifteenth century showed a new regard for the cultural worth of motherhood and wifery.

Everyone in this conversation presumed that black women should be working for wages, that their freedom did not entail the kinds of domesticity, motherhood, and wifery promoted for white women.