Customer Reviews

The New Wife: The Evolving Role of the American Wife

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In The New Wife: The Evolving Role Of The American Wife, author Susan Shapiro Barash presents an historical survey on the changing concept and expectation of the role of the modern wife from the 1950s down to the present day. Barash reveals the reasons why American women over the past five decades have continued to want to marry and become wives, as well as their disappointments, pretenses, and resolutions in that domestic role. Of particular interest are the observations regarding how mothering affects marriage, why romance is deemed so important; sexuality in marriage; how the workplace affects being a wife; the truth about egalitarian marriages; the disappointed expectations of the baby boomer wife; infertility; marriage at ages ranging from 25 to 70; and perhaps most important of all, why no universally accepted model exists for being a wife today. The New Wife is an informatively written and unique contribution to contemporary Women's Studies academic library reference collections and personal reading lists.

I believe that Susan Shapiro Barash is absolutely correct when she describes how it has been in America for the past five decades for wives. Although the role keeps changing, there are many aspects to it that also remain the same. I think it is interesting that she sees a parallel with the young wives of today and the fifties wives, in the sense that these women do not feel pressured to work. The difference is that the young wife today is educated and can have many career opportunities. Yet she likes the idea of having choices (to stay home or to go to work) and of a husband as provider. This kind of honesty, and this new swing backwards, sort of, with a twist, has not been discussed before. I also appreciate the way that the wives thought per decade, since each chapter is a different decade, beginning with the sixties. Barash refers to films of the times, famous women, such as Jackie Kennedy for a sixties wife, Princess Di as an eighties wife, as examples. The real life stories of women work well for me, and gives a sense that the goal of being a wife won't end in the twenty-first century. One also feels less alone when reading this book, as if the complicated role of being a wife is universal. I highly recommend this, it is informative and a pleasure to read.

I have followed each read of Barash's books, and while I am a fan of hers, THE NEW WIFE: The Evolving Role of the American Wife, is the one that really speaks to me. Here is a study of the way of the wife over the past fifty years, divided by decade. For wives of every decade, be it the fifties, sixties, seventies and so on, there is a description of the social climate(politics,styles,film stars, famous wives) and mores of that period. What is most interesting to see is how a woman who was married twenty, thirty or forty years ago has acclimated to her role in the decades since then. For example, a woman who was a young wife in 1984 has adapted to changing patterns in the last twenty years, yet she is also a product of her day.
Barash emphasizes how important it remains to many women, of all ages,class and ethnicity, to be a wife. While some wives are more disappointed than others---for example----the baby boomer wife has suffered the most, it seems---the role is a coveted one. And it appears from what Barash has to say ab out the young 'new wife', that this isn't about to change any time soon. A great read for young, middle aged and older women, THE NEW WIFE gives us information we have not had before. FIVE BIG STARS.

A must read for all modern wives, and all those wives of fifty years who want to understand the change in being a wife.

This was not a light read or all that insightful. Felt like a scientific review.

This is journalism posing as something more scholarly, and you would expect more from a Gender Studies professor with these credentials. She has interviewed many women from different generations but never specifies their number, background, age, class, or race. Thus all of her conclusions have a basis in fuzziness. Furthermore, she will generalize about a decade by turning to an example of a topic's treatment in a popular film, as if that treatment is parallel to someone's else account of their reality as a wife. You are unlikely to learn anything new if you have already been reading on this topic. Far better is Stephanie Coontz' recent book on marriage.

I've read four of Susan Barash's book but this is by far the best for women interested in what a wife was and what a wife is and what a wife should be.