Stepford wife

noun

A woman who unquestioningly submits to and serves her male partner, and/or does not seem to have interests, wishes, or pursuits of her own.

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Meanings

nounStepford wife (plural Stepford wives)

plural Stepford wives · alternative Stepford Wife

  1. derogatoryA woman who unquestioningly submits to and serves her male partner, and/or does not seem to have interests, wishes, or pursuits of her own.

    So that prompted me to ask the question: isn’t the ideal Muslim wife in actual fact a Stepford Wife?

    2006, Na'ima B. Robert, From My Sisters' Lips: A Unique Celebration of Muslim Womanhood, page 272
    2 more examples

    Parroting back her husband’s words, by the end of the play, Kate sounds either like a brainwashed member of a bizarre religious cult or a Stepford wife, a woman whose personality has been wiped out and replaced by one more acceptable to her husband.

    1995, Regina Barreca, Perfect Husbands & Other Fairy Tales): Demystifying Marriage, Men, And Romance, page 214

    "You can't just sit there and tell me you want Lili to become a 'Stepford wife' at your beck and call. […]

    2005, Mollie Molay, An Engagement of Convenience, page 210

Origin

From the 1972 novel The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin (adapted into a 1975 film of the same name), in which a woman moves to the fictional town of Stepford, Connecticut and discovers its eerily docile housewives are android replacements.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Stepford wife. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Stepford%20wife

MLA

“Stepford wife.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Stepford%20wife. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Stepford wife,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Stepford%20wife.

Source: Stepford wife on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.