Emily Flores
The “tradwife” (short for traditional wife) is a full-blown social media aesthetic rooted in rigid 1950s gender roles.
At the heart of it lies an image: the smiling, apron-clad woman who bakes from scratch, raises children, and submits to her husband—all while presenting this lifestyle as aspirational. But it’s not merely about choosing to stay at home.
How It Threatens Women In Today’s Society
Initially, the tradwife trend might seem like a harmless celebration of domesticity. But critics warn that its ideological undercurrents carry more weight. The movement doesn’t simply elevate homemaking; it tends to reject feminism outright by positioning equality as something women should walk away from.
In doing so, it revives a narrow, exclusionary definition of femininity—one that doesn’t reflect the diversity or complexity of women’s lives today.
It Blurs Lifestyle With Ideology
The most subtle—and arguably most insidious—aspect of the tradwife trend is how it turns personal choice into cultural prescription. On TikTok and Instagram, the aesthetic might look like cozy homes and vintage dresses, but layered beneath is a message that modern womanhood is broken and that feminism has “failed.”
It Ignores Economic Reality
The tradwife fantasy leans heavily on a 1950s vision of family life, where one breadwinner earned enough to support a household, and the wife stayed home full-time. But even back then, this model was never universal.
Many immigrant and working-class women had to work—often in roles like maids, laundresses, or factory hands—just to survive. Fast forward to 2024, and the illusion is even harder to sustain: with 74% of U.S. mothers in the labor force, the idea that most families can comfortably live on a single income is out of step with reality.
Today, choosing to work isn’t about rejecting femininity—it’s about meeting basic financial needs. Yet tradwife content often implies that not being able to live this lifestyle means you’re doing womanhood “wrong.” And single moms, queer women, those who choose not to have kids, or those focused on their careers, are all made to feel invisible or inferior.
It Romanticizes Unpaid Labor And Dependence
Women’s unpaid labor in the 50s was more often than not taken for granted.
They managed entire households, raised children, cooked, cleaned, and that’s why they had little to no financial independence. And if a marriage ended, many had nothing to keep them afloat. So, glamorizing full-time homemaking without acknowledging the risks can be misleading.
Not to mention that the women who propagate this trend online earn a good amount of money doing so.
It Smuggles In Exclusionary Politics
In the 1950s, the image of the perfect American housewife was a tool of social control. That’s why some scholars have found that this space can serve (sometimes unknowingly) as a gateway to beliefs that promote racial purity, strict heterosexual norms, and authoritarian gender roles.
Look, we get that not every woman who wears pearls and bakes bread is promoting extremism, but this trend provides cover for deeply regressive views to spread without drawing immediate suspicion.