Discussion questions

Use complete sentences and provide examples from the book in your responses. 

1) The book is titled The Stepford Wives, but it could also be titled The Stepford Husbands. Analyze the husbands in the novel, and their goals. Why don't they simply make robots to help their wives cook and clean? If this is a satire, what might these "exaggerated" men represent about society-at-large in the 1970s?

2) What role does domestic labor and the invisible work that housewives and mothers do play in the novel? What are the forms of labor that they do that are uncompensated and often not seen or appreciated?  

3) How do media and pornographic representations of women inform the men’s vision of the “perfect” Stepford Wives? 

4) Just as the environment and systemic structure of slavery influenced Rufus in Kindred, how does the environment and ideals of Stepford influence Walter? What does this tell us about how susceptible humans are to their environments?