What is one possible reason anne bradstreet used the poetic device of irony in her poems

Irony is the difference between what is being said and what is being meant.

English writer Anne Bradstreet used several instances of irony in her poems, mostly to mock society's assumptions as regards the role of women. For example:

"Who says my hand a needle better fits"

In the example above, Bradstreet refers to how society constrains women to do housework chores.

true. the definition explains it: a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word group, expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc. this is a dictionary definition that i have looked up in a dictionary.