The Stepford Wives

Ira Levin’s 1972 novel *The Stepford Wives* is a satirical work of feminist horror. It follows Joanna Eberhart, a photographer, wife, and mother, who grows suspicious that the women in her new town are being turned from independent, intelligent individuals into obedient homemakers. Two feature films have been made from the book, both sharing its title: one in 1975 and a remake in 2004.

The story is set in the fictional Fairfield County town of Stepford, Connecticut. The men there have adoring, submissive, and impossibly beautiful wives. Joanna arrives from New York City with her husband and children, hoping for a fresh start. She soon becomes troubled by the town’s wives, who seem to lack free will. Her own friends—Bobbie and Charmaine, also newcomers—change into mindless, docile housewives after romantic weekends with their husbands. Joanna’s husband, Walter, spends increasing time at the local men’s association and dismisses her fears.

Joanna comes to believe the men’s club is poisoning or brainwashing the women. At the library, she learns that several Stepford wives were once feminist activists and successful professionals. The club’s leader is a former Disney engineer, and other members are artists and scientists capable of building lifelike robots. Bobbie helps investigate, even writing to the state health department about possible toxins, but she too is transformed after a getaway with her husband.

At the novel’s end, Joanna tries to flee but finds her children gone. Her husband takes her car keys. She escapes on foot, and men from the club corner her in the woods. She accuses them of replacing the women with robots. They deny it and offer to prove one of the women can bleed. Joanna agrees and is taken to Bobbie’s house. Bobbie, holding an unusually large knife, beckons her closer. Joanna, desperate to believe her friend is human, complies. In the epilogue, Joanna has become another Stepford wife, gliding through the supermarket and saying housework is enough for her. A new resident, Ruthanne Hendry—the first black woman in Stepford—appears to be the next target.

Published by Random House on October 13, 1972, the novel was inspired by domestic robots from the 1970 book *Future Shock* and Disneyland’s presidential animatronics. Levin originally planned it as a comedic play. In a 2007 letter to *The New York Times*, he said he based Stepford on Wilto