Life & Wisdom Quote by Phyllis McGinley

Marriage, in McGinley’s hands, is both a rom-com punchline and a small act of rhetorical sabotage. She calls it “all a woman’s idea” not as feminist triumphalism but as a sly reversal of the usual story: that marriage is a social machine built by men, policed by law, and sweetened with sentimental propaganda. McGinley flips the credit assignment. The “pretty yoke” is the tell: marriage is decorative restraint, domesticated coercion wrapped in lace. By pairing “pretty” with “yoke,” she makes the institution feel simultaneously desirable and claustrophobic, the way mid-century domestic culture sold containment as charm.

The second move is sharper. “For man’s acceptance... it becomes us to be grateful” mimics the tone of genteel appreciation women were expected to perform. Gratitude becomes a kind of social tax: even if women supposedly invented marriage, men still receive praise for consenting to it. The subtext is that male participation gets framed as magnanimous, while female investment is assumed as natural duty. It’s a critique of how power can hide inside politeness.

Context matters. McGinley wrote in an era when the suburban ideal was cresting, when women’s ambitions were routed into “successful” domesticity and men’s authority remained the default setting. Her wit doesn’t explode the institution; it needles it from within, using the language of propriety to expose a bargain that’s never been evenly priced.