The Smart Wife: Why Siri, Alexa, and Other Smart Home Devices Need a Feminist Reboot—Yolande Strengers and Jenny Kennedy (Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 2020, 305+x pp.)

In Judy Syfers now-classic December 1971 feminist essay “I Want a Wife,” published in New York Magazine ’s preview of Ms., the author listed the reasons why a person might want someone in their life who would willingly do the chores, mind the children, manage the house, shop for provisions, provide social and sexual services, and function as a general household dogsbody. “My God,” Syfers asked, “Who wouldn’t want a wife?” Yolande Strengers and Jenny Kennedy, while not directly citing Syfers, ask a similar question in their 2020 analysis of what they call “smart wives,” including digital assistants like Siri and Alexa. “Meet the smart wife,” they invite us on the first page, “She’s pleasant, helpful, and available at an increasingly affordable price. Millions of people from around the world are now turning to connected and robotic devices to provide the domestic, caring, and intimacy services historically delivered by real-life wives” of the kind described by Syfers.