This term encompasses a return to the image of women from the 1950s, the housewife who looks following the children and the household and is completely subordinate to her husband. The target group for this is young girls and women. This trend is also known to those in Austria. What is it all regarding?
You swipe across your phone screen, a video of a cat sneezing is followed by a beautiful woman wearing an expensive-looking dress. In a soothing voice and with soft classical music in the background, she explains that her two children asked for cereal for breakfast. She now makes it all herself.
This woman’s name is Nara Smith and she is one of the most successful and well-known representatives of the tradwife community. With 3.6 million followers on Instagram and 8.2 million on TikTok, she has a considerable reach.
What makes a tradwife?
Women like her and Estee Williams promote a role for women who are subordinate to their husbands. This is exactly the key point that distinguishes housewives from “traditional” women. It’s not just regarding aesthetic cooking videos, but also dating and relationship tips for the millions of viewers, who are largely made up of young girls and women. “If you want to find a good husband, you have to be feminine.”
What feminine means for “traditional women”
Doing feminine jobs, such as babysitting, teaching or nursing, and then being willing to give them up once you’re married is said to help attract a “masculine man.” But not every housewife is a tradwife. The latter emphasize that women should once once more take their “natural” place in society and therefore also in the family.
Young women in Austria also familiar with the phenomenon
As is usual for social networks, the phenomenon is not only limited to the USA, but can be observed worldwide. 19-year-old Felicitas from Engerwitzdorf also got the trend on her feed. “This kind of life is not something I aspire to, but if someone wants it that way, then that’s their business and OK.”
Nevertheless, she criticizes the movement. “They show how they supposedly lead this life and romanticize these role models from the 50s, although they don’t actually live this traditional life. They earn their money through social media, so they also work.”
Double standards
That’s right, Nara Smith was able to earn a six-figure sum in the month of March alone. All through TikTok and without any additional money from sponsors.
Safe, perfect world
Maja, 20, originally from Germany and currently studying in Vienna, finds some of the content appealing because it is often aesthetically designed and offers good recipes.
When asked why these “traditional women” are so successful, she says: “There is a portion of young people who yearn for tradition and security and can celebrate that in this housewife existence. This housewife existence represents a perfect, safe world that does not exist in our complex, sometimes warlike reality.”
Young girls are also influenced
19-year-old Wilma also noticed something regarding it.
She would differentiate between cooking videos that many of the “traditional women” make and which are not bad in themselves, and their other posts in which they force gender roles. “I’ve noticed that my younger sister’s friend really likes these gender roles of traditional women. That really shocked me. I think that they definitely influence young girls.”
Privileges
Lia, also from Engerwitzdorf, also sees some posts from the tradwife movement and finds some of them appealing. She sees no problem with this as long as women take on this role voluntarily, because it is precisely this freedom of choice that is feminism.
“I just think it’s partly misrepresented on social media because this lifestyle is very privileged. Many people can’t afford for only one partner to work. That’s rarely mentioned in these videos,” she points out.
The attraction of traditional roles
Basically, one might notice a deep longing among Generation Z for a life like the tradwives seem to live.
Owning a house will remain an unattainable dream for many. Having a husband and children who give you a fixed place in the world. Having the luxury of taking the time to cook your own meals and not having to go to work on top of all the unpaid care work that working women still do to a large extent.
A youth shaped by Corona, the climate crisis, digitalization and political uncertainty perhaps makes this not so incomprehensible.
Danger: Dependence
But this way of organizing one’s life also has its risks. If women feel inspired to live their lives the way tradwives show them on social media, they will not earn as much as women online. Having no income of your own means being dependent on your husband on several levels.
It becomes more difficult to separate from your partner, which is a major problem especially in cases of domestic violence. In addition, due to our pension system, which does not recognize care work as work, you are tied to your partner well into old age.
Role models also a problem for men
But this family model can also have negative consequences for men. The responsibility for maintaining the family’s livelihood rests entirely on the man, which can also mean a lot of psychological pressure for him.