Tradwife

A tradwife (short for traditional wife) denotes a woman who prefers to take a traditional or ultra-traditional role in marriage, including the beliefs that a woman's place is in the home and that wives should be under a husbands "wing"/protection. The term is a neologism.[1][2] Some may have chosen to leave careers in business or in public life to focus instead on their families and raising children.[2]

An advertisement in the Ladies Home Journal from 1948 featuring a homemaker with an apron and an amply filled refrigerator

Usage of the term has spread in part through social media accounts on YouTube and Instagram, featuring women extolling the virtues of staying at home, fixing meals, having many children and raising them, submitting to male leadership, and behaving like "traditional wives".[3] A report in America magazine, a liberal Catholic publication, suggested that some tradwife adherents had adopted the practice of wearing veils in church in order to appeal to men.[4]

The concept is controversial partly because of the associations in the United States and in Britain with the alt-right,[5][6][7] white nationalism,[8] and the Republican party.[9] It rejects many of the precepts of feminism, and accepts the notion of the husband being the dominant figure in the home.[10] The New York Times columnist Annie Kelly suggested that there were connections between the idea of tradwives and white supremacy in that the movement urged more white women to have babies to offset a declining birthrate.[3] Hephzibah Anderson, writing in Prospect, described the tradwife movement as a fringe development.[11]

For some women who identify as tradwives, submitting to a husband means putting him in charge of all of the family's finances, with the wife getting a spending allowance.[6] Alena Pettitt felt "alienated" growing up in the 1990s, and didn't like the sentiment of "let's fight the boys and go out and be independent and break glass ceilings", and instead she related to the TV shows of the 1950s and 1960s.[12] She explained:

Because he's the bread winner it's his department to look after the family. He oversees major finances. If I if want to spend money and change sofa he says 'no', as he’s aware of what's going in and out. He gives me an allowance. I get the money to look after my department, the consumables of the house. If I’m frugal with it whatever is left is mine.

— Alena Petitt, explaining her position on the show This Morning[6]

There is an example of a high profile woman abandoning her career to become a tradwife: Canadian Cynthia Loewen, a former Miss Canada, gave up her path of becoming a doctor to become a full-time housewife for her husband.[13] She insists she is "more happy as a result" with her husband as the breadwinner and with her being in charge of the home, and she said that she gets fulfillment from this arrangement.[13]

In another example, housewife Madison Dastrup chose to get married at age 19, and she criticizes people who say she's not completely fulfilled.[14] She explained:

Cooking for (my husband) is my way of showing how much I appreciate all he does for our family... He will be able to come home and relax with a nice hot homemade meal. Being able to stay home and do little things to serve those around me brings me so much joy.

— Madison Dastrup in 2021[14]