The tradwife movement

Excellent post

I think trad wife is a luxury belief, almost like cosplaying, because women in the past fought for women to have equal pay, education, the vote, the right to own property, to divorce if necessary, the establishment of refuges and charities, to claim benefits and child maintenance if they do find themselves a single parent, to have access to birth control, for marital rape to be illegal etc. women can choose a trad lifestyle but are not trapped as women in the past could be (and women currently are in oppressive countries) They need to be careful not to discredit these rights or pull the ladder up behind them, just because they’ve found a rich man prepared to keep them in a lifestyle they’re happy to go along with while everything’s going well.

The mid-twentieth century was an odd time where household appliances had started to significantly reduce household labour, but wider social shifts meant middle-class families could no longer afford to keep servants. This had big effects on the nature of women's work both in the home and out of it.

I get the impression that tradwives tend to be going less for "the 1950s" and more for a sort of romanticised nineteenth century rural America?

Women weren’t allowed to have their own bank account without permission from their dad or husband until the 70s. Doesn’t give you much chance if your husband is abusive. I don’t think women with abusive husbands are happier. I would prefer to have the choice - equal choice as men to do what I want. I think that’s what feminism has given us hasn’t it?

I always think the massive contradiction (hypocrisy) of tradwife influencers is that they are making money working for themselves by being very opinionated on social media? They're selling a tradwife aesthetic but if they were serious about the tradwife life they'd get off Instagram, for starters.

In times of stress people will be susceptible to propaganda about how to go back to a mythical time when everything was perfect. This also requires scapegoats. Nazi Germany had Jews and gypsies. The right and the religious have feminists.
Sell women and men a story about how good their life would be if they only had a happy provider/a submissive helpmeet.
Agree with PP that any woman who says she’s ’not a feminist’ needs a sharp retort about which rights she’s planning to give away.

Doesn't it dovetail in with the rise of the Manosphere?
Men in the so-called manosphere expect and want women to look after them in a traditional way.

I've nannied for 2 well-known social media 'Tradwives'. In both households I was one of 2 nannies (they had maternity nurses for their babies too, who would do overnights). They had housekeepers who would take care of the majority of the cooking, all the grocery shopping and and all the laundry. They would kit themselves and the kids up in white floaty things for filming, then back into jeans and T-shirts for real life. The parents had very little to do with their own children outside of filming content, and in one family the couple themselves had a strained relationship.

These people had hundreds of thousands of 'followers', admiring and envious of their 'lifestyle'. In both households it was all a complete veneer and what was portrayed on their Instagram was wildly different from the reality.

There have always been groups that promote this ideal of womanhood. I remember them well from the 90s.

I sometimes think every generation looks at other ones and think they have/had it better. My mum was a young married in the 1950s. She was a teacher but it was just assumed she would do all the cooking and cleaning etc. although she worked full time. She envied the fact that my DH did some housework.
I envied the fact that it was assumed her DH (my DF) would provide financially for his family. I was the main wage earner, although my DH did work, and I felt the pressure. I would have quite liked to be less responsible!
I look at my DILs who share some finances with their DHs, but the rest is separate ie their own.
For me it’s less about how people live their lives, it’s have they made that choice freely. People need to wise up to the lies told on social media, but unfortunately every generation has it’s gullible ones and that is how they are fooled today.

Women in the 1950s certainly weren't happier. 'Mother's little helpers' [tranquillisers]?

Choices are not made in a vacuum.Women doing this put themselves at risk and need at the very least to understand that.

I think you're mixing up feminism with capitalism.
Its not feminism that exploits you in the workplace so you don't have enough time with your family.

She’s also constantly pregnant… do you really expect her to be able to think clearly? Do you not think that’s why he does it?

Not when you’ve been groomed from a teenager, no.
i thought this was 2026 and we knew about grooming and were better than victim blaming and misogyny?

So she has no say in her choices she jusy blindly unintelligent doesn't thinl for herself and let a man do all her thinking for her?

Are there any red flags of women and women who 'trap' men or does it only ever work one way?

THIS
I’m a feminist of course, but even I can see how much feminism has failed and actually betrayed women - we have more demands & expectations on us than ever before in history, and are given less time to be mothers with our children than many of us would like. It’s no real surprise why some women would want to opt out of this wage-slavery-plus-motherhood-household slog. I can certainly see the attraction of being able to focus on my children & home.

One thing about the tradwives is that they’re mostly in their 20’s/ early 30’s. Even they come to their senses albeit later in life.

It's white supremacy, at heart. Never forget that.

I have been bombarded with these types on Facebook lately. It seems to be gaining ground. A lot is really awful such as a woman saying her husband had told her she was no good at making decisions so he now just tells her what to do and she obeys. Another telling everyone how she told her grand daughter that wanting to study medicine was bad because God made women to be submissive wives not doctors. Loads justifying marital rape. I'm seeing a lot of pages about having large families too, a lot of them seem to be attaching themselves to the quiverfull stuff which is not great. I just think it can't be real? It's got to be made up, acted out for the money because no one would seriously advocate that for themselves and their daughters.

I guess a lot of those women were working pre marriage and children and then had to stop too.

Women were under pressure to give up jobs they had competently held during the war when men returned and wanted them. They were never paid the same as male counterparts for equal roles and had no real employment protections or maternity rights.

There was no real childcare, no wrap around at school, no fast food, no microwaves. My grandmother had a cold slab in the larder as she had no fridge and so needed to shop most days as nothing kept long. Housework was much more 'essential' and much more time consuming.

Surely this is just a social media thing rather than a real life thing.

It’s loathsome - the New York Times ran a piece this week about a small but growing movement in favour of reversing women’s suffrage because they think the Bible says… well I don’t know but it’s all tied up in that men are the head of the household belief.

Yes can’t find where I got that figure so can’t back it up. Have found one set that suggests 49.5% of working age women in employment in 1955 so less than I’d thought but also figures that correlate with your numbers more closely. I do believe that the numbers are underestimated due to casual and informal labour conditions

she definitely sells herself as a trad wife

If you read her accounts, she has no actual help. She spends weeks in bed recovering. He owns an airline and got her an apron for her birthday when she asked for a holiday. She was going to be a dancer and he trapped her