wifery

English

Etymology

From wife +‎ -ry.

Noun

wifery (uncountable)

1. The state of being a wife.
   • 1976, Electa Clark, Leading Ladies: An Affectionate Look at American Women of the Twentieth Century, New York, N.Y.: Stein and Day, →ISBN, page 190:

     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.

   • 1977, Paula McDonald, Dick McDonald, Guilt-Free, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, page 164:

     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.

   • 1986, John Updike, Roger’s Version, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 239:

     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.

   • 1997, Miriam B. Peskowitz, Spinning Fantasies: Rabbis, Gender, and History, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 98:

     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.

   • 2004, Miranda Lee, Bedded by the Boss, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 84:

     ‘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.’

   • 2011 March 16, Robyn Okrant, “It Took a Village: Nature, Nurture and Pop Culture”, in HuffPost‎^[1], archived from the original on 2 April 2023:

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

   • 2015, Ross E. Dunn, Laura J. Mitchell, Panorama: A World History, volume 2 (from 1300), McGraw-Hill Education, →ISBN, page 445:

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

   • 2016, Micki McElya, The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor in Arlington National Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass., London: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 74:

     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.

Derived terms

• spiritual wifery