Discussing Tradwives and their effect on the culture – five years on, they are here to stay.
Not always dressed in flowing skirts, with pinned up hair, and a gaggle of children running at her feet, often now the ‘Tradwife’ is wearing Pretty Little Thing and speaking to us from a new IPhone. A new cultural influencer, she boasts of her conservative ‘traditional’ lifestyle, encourages women to ‘submit’ to their husbands and sometimes expresses beliefs more akin to right wing politics.
The idea of performing to an audience via social media is not a new one. The 21st century has seen influencer culture boom, from fashion and beauty influencers to fitness ‘experts’ and gamer streamers – now welcome Tradwives, whose uncanny ability to showcase a bygone era has captivated audiences since 2016.
Focusing on the American Tradwife influencers, or ‘traditional wives’, who often use social media platforms to discuss their choice to live ‘traditional life’ where strict gender roles are adhered to. Most popularly, they dictate that the man is the ‘head of the household’ and that all major decisions are made by him. Yet, ironically, the monetary gain had from brand deals and posting as a social media influencers enables some of these tradwives to make a living off discussing the benefits of not working.
In these ‘traditional relationships’, the woman is usually the ‘homemaker’, taking care of the house and the home and the man provides.
This homemaker usually does not have a job, allowing the ‘head’ of the household to provide. This bygone era they usually reminisce on, may once have allowed a family to live on a single income, but in 2025, many American families struggle to live on just one. Yet they perform to a camera, enticing more women to come and join them – to potentially give up a career, look after a home and children, and be provided for by their husband.
Whilst this lifestyle may seem innocuous to some, writer and podcaster, Stefanie O’Connell Rodriguez argues that these performances are quite simply just that, performances. She discusses, “you’ll not get the screaming child in the background, you’ll get beautiful lighting. There’s a performance in what she is wearing and the way her hair and makeup is done.”
Rodriguez argues this is a form of escapism not just for the viewer but as escapism for the Tradwife too, as 2020 saw a boom in Tradwife influencers. The Guardian report that people were attempting to “wring excitement” out of everyday tasks, probably due to the worldwide pandemic.
Rodriguez likens this ‘performance’ to “escapism and romanticism in the same way as advertisements from the 1950’s were also a form of escapism and romanticism of the housewife ideal.” Journalist and lawyer, Jill Filipovic also suggests that often individuals look back at an “idealised past…” and that tradwives aren’t so different “except it’s beamed into your phone.”
However, this lifestyle that is carefully curated is “not accessible” says Rodriguez and that this “dream is often rooted in the imagined past.” In an article written by Carter Sherman for The Guardian, they write, “the values that undergrid the tradwife lifestyle are taking centre stage at the highest levels of politics”, linking Tradwives to conservative ideologies.
Not always picture perfect, but in the case of Tradwife influencer, Estee Williams, her hair is always primed, her makeup is always touched up and her husband always ‘welcomed home to a dolled up wife.’
Estee speaks to her 100,000 followers on Instagram and almost 200,000 on Tik Tok. Searching her name on Tik Tok may lead you to a series of comments written and posted by Estee discussing her pro-life beliefs that were instilled in her by her parents.
The topic of abortion rights has been a powerful weapon used by Republicans in the recent return of Trump to the Whitehouse. In 2022, the reversal of Roe v Wade saw the constitutional right to abortion overturned. After the re-election of Trump, Planned Parenthood, the ‘single largest provider of reproductive health services’ in the US, saw a “significant surge in demand for long-acting and permanent contraceptive options”.
Vice President, JD Vance, has spoken out about his belief in a nationwide abortion ban, the importance of the nuclear family, whilst also being vocal about his opposition to “universal childcare”. The same childcare help that may enable families to live off one income, if so desired. He has also stated in 2021 that ‘childless voters’ should get fewer voting powers than their counterparts with children.
This ‘trend’ of the Tradwives does “not exist in a vacuum” argues Rodriguez, and that “tradwives speak to a recognition of some real brokenness.” She argues that power dynamics and, in this case, the unfair labour division that Tradwives proliferate, serve the only the ‘man’. Continuing she says, “who does it serve for women to step out of the paid labour force and devote themselves exclusively to the unpaid work of caretaking and to housework and to never step into the public sphere? Well, that serves the purpose of preserving men’s power and preserving the status quo.”
Filipovic argues that the link between Tradwives and the far right is “strong and dangerous” and that the American far right “push a supposedly ‘traditional’ view of the family in which the husband works for pay and is the family’s economic earner, its political representative and its head… it remains the right-wing ideal.”
This ‘right-wing ideal’ is often parroted by Tradwives, although they argue that a ‘submissive wife’ does not mean she is a lesser person, however it does mean that the man has the final say.
It has to be said that not all Tradwives believe and ‘perform’ the same way. Of course some women live their traditional life off camera, abiding by their strict gender rules without an audience. However, some women have chosen to live their lives viewed through the black screen of their viewers’ phone. Filipovic argues that there are two types of tradwives, some with “overt political aims, who are happy to make money telling other women to submit to breadwinner husbands” and others who have found a niche as a genuine domestic influencer.
