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Jane Smith

Professor Davis

ENGL 1302.989

13 February 2020

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.