Men don't understand, he is patronising her in the way that a job is not just a job but a sense of power, of individuality and a duty, which Serena Joy keeps trying to find in her knitting and in her garden.

The syndetic listing makes it seem like this is an impersonal law, that women need to feel a sense of duty to stay sane. However, it is all artificial because Serena Joy and other wives have no real duty, only a pretend duty.