If you search tradwife on TikTok, you’ll find videos of women in floral sundresses and aprons sharing their experiences as stay-at-home wives and emphasizing homemaking.
Although not inherently controversial, the trend has sparked debate online. Some users argue that, without context, the trend could be a red herring for normalizing restrictive views on women amid recent legislative changes.
Tradwife is short for traditional wife, which refers to a married woman who adheres to traditional gender roles. These include focusing on child-rearing, homemaking, supporting her husband, cooking and cleaning while her husband is the household’s breadwinner.
Many excerpts from “How to Be a Good Wife” guides from the 1950s have made it to the search results of many platforms in connection with the tradwife movement. The centering of the 1950s and ‘60s in the tradwife movement has led many women to criticize it because of the lack of historical and social context.
In an article for Time, Jacqueline Beatty discusses the ideas of coverture laws and parallels the ideals of many “Tradwife” influencers.
Coverture was the legal doctrine of the expectations and rights of married women in America. Sir William Blackstone, a legal commentator during the late 1700s, wrote four volumes of “Commentaries of the Laws of England.” The book discusses the ideals of coverture and its “protection” of women, calling them “favorites under the law.”
“By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage … under the protection and influence of her husband, her baron, or lord; and her condition during her marriage is called her coverture,” Blackstone wrote in his commentary.
Coverture prevented women from acquiring property, stock or other investment forms from their husbands. Married women could not have personal wealth including bank accounts and bonds, meaning they could not buy items without permission from their husband. By law, husbands were only required to provide “necessaries” to their wives, which were defined as “items necessary for sustenance.”
Any property or wealth in the wife’s name before marriage is automatically transferred to her husband. Coverture also gave husbands the legal right to give their wives “moderate correction” which allowed husbands to physically punish their wives.
As highlighted by Beatty, coverture prevented women from having parental rights, the legitimacy of crimes like marital rape and domestic violence and the autonomy of their bodies.
There has been talk amongst federal legislators about the removal of “No Fault” divorce laws. This would overhaul legislation that has helped domestic abuse victims and divorced couples for the past 50 years to avoid drawn-out, in some cases dangerous, divorce proceedings.
In a CNN article, Catherine Rottenberg, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham specializing in neoliberal feminism, explained how the state of the nation has led to the tradwife movement.
“If there is no reliable health care, if women are making less money than their partners due to the gender wage gap, and if there is no decent child care, then women ramping off the career path and serving their husbands and children provides a Band-Aid to these larger crises – and provides this Band-Aid with ideological cover,” Rottenberg said. “Rather than recognizing crises of child care and overwork as structural problems, tradwives typically point the finger at feminism.”
Virginia tradwife Estee Williams has become a face of the current tradwife movement. She has expressed that the lifestyle should be a choice and supports women who want to work. However, she stated in a TikTok video that a woman’s top priority should be being a wife and motherhood.
The tradwife lifestyle is not inherently harmful or destructive. However, many people argue that the lack of context makes it irresponsible. Traditional gender roles require a one-source-of-income household, which, in a modern global cost-of-living crisis, doesn’t make this a viable lifestyle for many people.
With the overturning of legislation like Roe v. Wade and the closures of Planned Parenthood locations and women's studies programs, many people take this newest wave of traditional gender role values as a smoke signal to the ideals and power shifts of the nation. Some even ponder if women’s empowerment has lost its meaning.
