Stepford used as an adjective originates from a book written in 1972 by Ira Levin called The Stepford Wives, more well-known for its dramatization into a movie in 1975. (A 21st-century remake starring Nicole Kidman hit the screens in 2004.) Stepford is a New York suburb where women are strangely content in their lives as mothers and housewives, and as the plot unfolds, we discover that these women are in fact robotic creations, programmed by their husbands to embrace traditional wifely duties and norms. In the twenty years since the original movie was released, the adjective has become more widely used to refer to anyone who lives their life in a compliant, robotic fashion.

Stepford used as an adjective originates from a book written in 1972 by Ira Levin called The Stepford Wives, more well-known for its dramatization into a movie in 1975. (A 21st-century remake starring Nicole Kidman hit the screens in 2004.) Stepford is a New York suburb where women are strangely content in their lives as mothers and housewives, and as the plot unfolds, we discover that these women are in fact robotic creations, programmed by their husbands to embrace traditional wifely duties and norms. In the twenty years since the original movie was released, the adjective has become more widely used to refer to anyone who lives their life in a compliant, robotic fashion.