Not Quite a Clean Sweep: Rhetorical Strategies in Grose’s “Cleaning: The
Final Feminist Frontier”
A woman’s work is never done. Sadly, many American women grow up
hearing this saying and feel it to be true.1 One such woman, author Jessica
Grose, wrote “Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier,” published in 2013 in the
New Republic,2 and she argues that while the men recently started taking on
more of the childcare and cooking, cleaning still falls unfairly on women.3
Grose begins building her credibility with personal facts and reputable
sources, citing convincing facts and statistics, and successfully employing
emotional appeals; however, toward the end of the article, her attempts to
appeal to readers’ emotions weaken her credibility and ultimately, her
argument.4
In her article, Grose first sets the stage by describing a specific
scenario of house-cleaning with her husband after being shut in during
Hurricane Sandy, and then she outlines the uneven distribution of cleaning
work in her marriage and draws a comparison to the larger feminist issue of
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who does the cleaning in a relationship. Grose continues by discussing some
of the reasons that men do not contribute to cleaning: the praise for a clean
house goes to the woman; advertising and media praise men’s cooking and
childcare, but not cleaning; and lastly, it is just not fun. Possible solutions to
the problem, Grose suggests, include making a chart of who does which
chores, dividing up tasks based on skill and ability, accepting a dirtier home,
and making cleaning more fun with gadgets.5
Throughout her piece, Grose uses many strong sources that strengthen
her credibility and appeal to ethos, as well as build her argument.6 These
sources include, “sociologists Judith Treas and Tsui-o Tai,” “a 2008 study from
the University of New Hampshire,” and “P&G North America Fabric Care
Brand Manager, Matthew Krehbiel” (qtd. in Grose).7 Citing these sources
boosts Grose’s credibility by showing that she has done her homework and
has provided facts and statistics, as well as expert opinions to support her
claim. She also uses personal examples from her own home life to introduce
and support the issue, which shows that she has a personal stake in and
first-hand experience with the problem.8
Adding to her ethos appeals, Grose uses strong appeals to logos, with
many facts and statistics and logical progressions of ideas.9 She points out
facts about her marriage and the distribution of household chores. An
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example can be seen when she says: “My husband and I both work. We split
midnight baby feedings …but … he will admit that he’s never cleaned the
bathroom, that I do the dishes nine times out of ten, and that he barely knows
how the washer and dryer work in the apartment we’ve lived in for over eight
months.”10 These facts introduce and support the idea that Grose does more
household chores than her husband. Grose continues with many other
statistics:
“About 55 percent of American mothers employed full time do some
housework on an average day, while only 18 percent of employed
fathers do. … [W]orking women with children are still doing a week and
a half more of “second shift” work each year than their male partners. …
Even in the famously gender-neutral Sweden, women do 45 minutes
more housework a day than their male partners.”11
These statistics are a few of many that logically support her claim that it
is a substantial and real problem that men do not do their fair share of the
chores. The details and numbers build an appeal to logos and impress upon
the reader that this is a problem worth discussing.12
Along with strong logos appeals, Grose effectively makes appeals to
pathos or the reader’s emotion.13 Her introduction is full of
emotionally-charged words and phrases that encourage sympathy. Grose
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notes that she “was eight months pregnant” and her husband found it difficult
to “fight with a massively pregnant person.”14 The image she evokes of the
challenges and vulnerabilities of being so pregnant, as well as the high
emotions a woman feels at that time, effectively introduce the argument and
its seriousness. Her goal is to make the reader feel sympathy for her. Adding
to this idea are words and phrases such as, “insisted,” “argued,” “not fun,”
“sucks,” “headachey,” “be judged,” and “be shunned” (Grose). All of these
words evoke negative emotions about cleaning, which makes the reader
sympathize with women who feel “judged” and shunned”—very negative
feelings. Another feeling Grose reinforces with her word choice is the concept
of fairness: “fair share,” “more housework,” and “more gendered and less
frequent.” These words help establish the unfairness that exists when women
do all of the cleaning, and they are an appeal to pathos, or the readers’
feelings of frustration and anger with injustice.15
Lastly, Grose’s use of a stern tone throughout, as well as the use of
various bold metaphors and idioms to help the reader equate the weight of a
woman having to do everything around the house in comparison to a man
help her article hit a home run.16 At one point she says, “They say don’t bite
the hand that feeds you; but, what do you do when the hand that feeds you is
the same hand that inadvertently leads you to the slaughter, too?”17 She takes
this well known idiom about being grateful for the one that provides for you
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and adds the layer that oftentimes we ignore the harm that that same hand
can cause because it demands the impossible as a recompensation of sorts.
Her very stern and matter of fact tone from start to finish urge the reader to
understand the seriousness of the issue.18
Grose begins the essay by effectively persuading her readers of the
unfair distribution of home-maintenance cleaning labor, and continues to build
her case by including personal examples from her own marriage, as well as
documented statistics to assert her argument that men do not do enough
around the house in comparison to women. Her ability to touch the hearts of
readers with her experiences being pregnant and still being expected to do
everything around the house fosters sympathy from her audience and
essentially drives home her argument. Her goal to effectively appeal to both
men and women was indeed achieved. 19
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Works Cited
Grose, Jessica. “Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier.” New Republic. The
New Republic, 19 Mar. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
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Notes: How The Essay Is Broken Down
(You are NOT required to include the actual little numbers within your completed essay. They are included in this example and used here to help you understand what every
single part of each section should include.)
Paragraph 1:
1. Hook or attention getter 2. Cite the title and details of the source 3. Author’s claim or purpose 4. Thesis
Paragraph 2:
5. Summary of the article’s main point
Paragraph 3:
6. Transition and topic sentence that reflects on the first point/part of the thesis -ethos/credibility
7. Quote illustrates how the author uses appeals to ethos 8. Analysis explains how the quotes show the effective use of ethos
Paragraphs 4&5:
9. Transition and topic sentence that reflects on the second point/part of the thesis- logos/facts/statistics
10. Quote that illustrate appeals to logos (YOU ONLY NEED ONE LOGOS QUOTE. THE STUDENT JUST DECIDED TO USE TWO).
11.Quote that illustrates appeals to logos 12. Analysis explains how the quotes show the effective use of logos
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Paragraph 6:
13. Transition and topic sentence that reflects on the third point/part of the thesis- pathos and the appeal to emotions
14. Quote that illustrate appeals to pathos 15. Analysis explains how the quote shows the effective use of pathos
Paragraph 7:
16. Transition and topic sentence that reflects on other rhetorical devices used such as tone and figurative language.
17. Quote that illustrates the use of other rhetorical devices such as tone and figurative language
18. Analysis explains how the quote shows the effective use of those other rhetorical devices such as tone and figurative language
Paragraph 8:
19. Conclusion returns to the ideas in the thesis and further develops them, as well as mentions any additional rhetorical devices effectively used such as tone, repetition or figurative language.
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