tradwife
What is a tradwife?
How is the tradwife trend linked to feminism?
What activities do tradwives typically engage in?
How does the tradwife lifestyle relate to political views?
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Tradwife is a term for a married woman who embraces traditional gender roles and values and tends to share the details of her life on social media. The term, a combination of âtraditionalâ and âwife,â originated in the 2010s and gained prominence around the COVID-19 pandemic, as people increasingly focused on life at home. The tradwife trend is controversial in that it is seen by some as a rejection of feminism and a reversion to a seemingly simpler time. Others argue that it is exactly the kind of choice the feminist movement enabled women to make.
Society has struggled with what to call the work in the home traditionally performed by women and universally agreed upon as necessary. Consider:
- Housewife: A term that first appeared in The Oxford English Dictionary in the 13th century (as huswif), it was widely used through the 1950s.
- Homemaker: A term that grew out of the popularity of the home economics teachings of the mid-20th century, it regained traction in the 1980s.
- Stay-at-home mom: The focus of this term, which became common in the 1990s, was the work of raising children, not necessarily the place where it occurred.
- Tradwife: The 2020s moniker that adds the dynamic of a social media presence to the role.
Many tradwife social media accounts promote the idea, either explicitly or implicitly, that returning to traditional gender roles and investing in domestic pursuits will help cisgender women have more fulfilling lives, away from what is seen as an unfulfilling world of corporate climbing. Tradwife social media content typically offers an aspirational narrative in the form of videos depicting immaculately groomed, hyperfeminine women, often sporting vintage styles, cooking meals from scratch, and homeschooling their children. The lifestyle often aligns with politically and religiously conservative values.
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Who is a tradwife?
Some notable tradwives who have gained fame in the 2020s (followers as of June 2026) include:
- Estee Williams, 197,300 followers on TikTok, embodies the tradwife aesthetic and is also a proponent of the conservative gender dynamics often associated with the trend. She discusses wivesâ âbiblical submissionâ to their husbands and offers tips to attract âmasculine men.â She reportedly does not leave the house without her husbandâs permission.
- Hannah Neeleman, 10.5 million followers on TikTok, is a Juilliard-trained dancer and mother of nine. She and her farmer husband, Daniel, live and work on their Utah farm, and Neeleman sells farm products and kitchen utensils online. She does not identify with the term tradwife but does embody many of the termâs defining characteristics. A 2024 profile in The New York Times offered a glimpse into Neelemanâs life, portraying it as both real and carefully curated:
She makes doughnuts from scratch, pulls herbs from her container garden and makes time for the occasional pas de bourrĂ©e or weight lifting session with her husband. (Her new line of Ballerina Farm protein powder has been a top seller on the website.) As she rolls pasta or stuffs grape leaves, sheâs sometimes carrying a baby in a sling or a toddler on her hip; the older children often drift into frame, but never whine or fight.
Political and economic dynamics
What does a tradwifeâs day look like? Here are some of the chores documented on social media:
- Raising chickens
- Milking cows
- Making meals from scratch, including homemade bread, sauces, and pasta
- Growing vegetables
- Homeschooling children
- Making clothing
Although much tradwife social content is not overtly political, the tradwife trend is strongly correlated with political conservatism, and some content openly spreads anti-feminist sentiment and far-right values and conspiracy theories. Although some see the trend as a regression in the progress toward gender equality that has been achieved since the mid-20th century, some tradwife influencers argue that their lifestyle is a choice, precisely the kind of choice that second-wave feminism advocates women should be empowered to make. Social critics link the rise of the tradwife to backlash against third- and fourth-wave feminism as well as the Me Too movement and acceptance of LGBTQ+ rights.
Another key source of criticism of tradwives relates to the economics of the lifestyle. In 2025, 57.3 percent of working-age women in the United States were employed, compared with 35.7 percent of women in 1955, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. No doubt some of that is women choosing to work because of increased opportunities in the workplace, but it also reflects changes in the structure of families. Consider that, according to the Center for American Progress, in 1970, 67 percent of adults (defined as 25 to 49 years old) lived in a traditional nuclear family with a spouse and one or more minor children. By 2021 that percentage had fallen to 37 percent. The countryâs more than 7 million single mothers (as of 2023) represent 80 percent of single-parent families, in which they need to provide children with both financial and emotional support. Simply put: For these people and millions of others, being a tradwife is not an option.
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Presence in pop culture
Even as the tradwife phenomenon reaches tens of millions of people on social media, the reality is that most women âfollowâ it as aspirational escapism, the way some women of an earlier generation flipped through glossy fashion magazines.
Still, the fascination has extended beyond social media. In April 2026 Caro Claire Burkeâs debut novel, Yesteryear, about a tradwife who runs a business and raises her five children on a Utah farm with her would-be farmer husband (if that sounds familiar, youâre a careful reader), spent weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. Academy Award-winning actress Anne Hathaway will star in the film adaptation of the book. Coverage of the tradwife phenomenon in both mainstream and conservative media also has been extensive.