Your husband is your Lord on earth.
Girls, your career is not important.
Social media starts offering these kinds of Thoughts if you follow American tradwife influencers in particular.
In Finnish, tradwife means a traditional wife who is dedicated to taking care of the home.
Housewifery and conservatism are common in the United States. However, Tradwife videos are more than a presentation of a certain lifestyle.
It’s about a new way of doing politics.
This story tells how tradwives are involved in spreading the contents of, for example, the ultra-conservative Projekti 2025 declaration.
According to the researchers interviewed by , not all tradwives consciously seek to spread political opinions. Some post tradwife videos just so they can get exposure.
Ultra-conservative values veiled in soft content
Although few tradwives talk about politics directly, they make old values visible, say the American experts interviewed by .
Not all tradwives may consciously spread political opinions, but they can still have a big impact on people.
– Tradwife influencers veil their ultra-conservative ideas about gender roles in soft lifestyle content. In this way, they can more easily reach a larger audience.
This is the opinion of one of the most famous tradwife experts Eviane Leidig. She has researched radicalization online and published a book about far-right female social media influencers.
One of the most famous trafwife influencers is from the United States Estee Williams26.
He is a rarity among tradwifis, as Williams has published content directly related to politics.
Below is an Instagram post where she describes herself as a proud housewife and supporter of Donald Trump.
The popular influencer also works as a television commentator.
Williams has spoken on the Fox News channel about traditional gender roles and “equality issues”.
The tradwife movement was born in anti-feminist forums
According to researcher Leidig, the roots of the current tradwife phenomenon are in politics, not in the wellness culture spreading on social media.
The phenomenon started in the anti-feminism movement about ten years ago.
Some of the tradwife influencers still have a direct connection to far-right alt-right groups. Such is one of the first tradwife figures, Mrs. Midwest.
– When you look at the kinds of accounts he follows and recommends, there is a lot of white nationalism there, says Leidig.
According to Leidig, the content of other tradwifis can also be considered political, even if they themselves do not take a direct stand on it.
Popular posts are also used by power users.
For example, conservative politicians pass them on. Likewise, conservative media utilize tradwife content.
In one of her most watched videos, Williams gets ready for the moment when her husband comes home from work.
In the video, she urges other women to do the same:
Like Tradwifi, liberal social media influencers also share content about their own family concept on social media. According to Leidig, they are usually open about their political positions.
– Tradwives differ from representatives of other ideologies in that they do not talk about politics or the news directly.
“Can modify the female image of young men”
Many US media has pondereddid the popularity of tradwife videos affect the election result.
Trump gained support in many groups, especially among young men.
Leidig believes that the contents of tradwifis may have had an effect on men in particular.
According to him, several tradwives tailor content specifically for young men. It can be seen, for example, in the way influencers dress and speak.
– They assure that there is a crisis of masculinity in our society. The issue can be fixed by a lifestyle where the man is an aggressive leader and head of the family, says Leidig.
He is concerned that tradwife content can shape young men’s image of women. For example, the idea of how women should act and behave in a relationship.
The “instruction book” of extreme conservatives and Trump’s vice president encourage stay-at-home motherhood
According to the researchers, Tradwife is also connected to the extreme conservative Project 2025.
It is a 900-page declaration by a US conservative think tank, which contains policy recommendations for Trump’s upcoming presidency.
Trump has denied that he himself had anything to do with the documentary.
However, dozens of his advisers have contributed to its writing. Trump has already appointed some of them to important positions in their administration.
This is how Project 2025 describes, for example, a family:
“The foundations of a well-ordered nation and a healthy society are families, consisting of a married mother, father and their children.”
Single-parent families are referred to in the text as a “crisis of fatherlessness”, while families of sexual minorities are referred to as “adult selfishness”.
According to Project 2025, the state should focus on supporting children’s home care instead of public day care.
Trump’s vice president JD Vance quoth in his speech in 2021, that the family should be able to be supported by the income of one person.
Tradwife influencers bring such ideas to life with their videos.
In them, the woman takes care of the children and the home. The man works and supports the family.
Many of the tradwives specifically sell an image of what a family should look like and what it shouldn’t look like, says an American communication technology researcher to .
– When you watch, you don’t think you’re getting the content of a political document, but attractive pictures from your favorite influencer, says the assistant professor Jessica Rauchberg from Seton Hall University.
In the background is the 19th century concept of family
According to Rauchberg, tradwife accounts and the Project 2025 declaration promote a family model that dates back about 150 years to the Victorian era.
At that time, women’s and men’s tasks were strictly separated.
The idealization of old times is clearly visible in the style of the influencers. For example, tradwife influencer and entrepreneur Aria Lewis often wears ruffled aprons in his videos.
Her Instagram video below reads: “Be careful or you’ll find yourself pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen.” Me: Yep.
In addition to aprons, tradwife contents also feature wasp waists from the 1950s.
During the pandemic, the A-line ruffled dress became a kind of trad icon.
– It is a very conservative, almost nightgown-like garment. You can walk around the apartment and look pretty, Rauchberg sums up.
According to Rauchberg, the romanticization of history has been emphasized especially with the popularity of Tiktok.
According to Leidig, it is easy to fall into the tradwife bubble on social media.
The user quickly starts to get strong opinions about gender roles and family life in his social media stream.
Leidig estimates that the big social media companies push tradwife content because people like to watch videos of all kinds of tinkering at home.
– Tradwife influencers turn cooking, crafts and handicrafts into weapons.
A famous tradwife can earn more than her husband
Many tradwives sell something along with their accounts; cleaning supplies, clothes, skin care products. Aria Lewis, who dresses in old-fashioned outfits, also has an online store for college shirts.
The most popular tradwife accounts have millions of followers.
According to Rauchberg’s estimate, the most famous tradwife influencers can earn $70,000 from a single ad campaign.
The arrangement is gloomy:
An influential woman brings the money into the economy, although according to the tradwife ideology, the man supports the wife. In the end, the ideology includes the fact that the wife shouldn’t even have her own public social media channel, Rauchberg reflects.
– The fact that women do not have a voice in our democracies is, in my opinion, the most dangerous consequence of this lifestyle, says Leidig.