If you are like me and have a mild to moderate TikTok addiction, chances are you’ve seen aesthetically pleasing videos of stay-at-home moms and homemakers making mouthwatering meals and organic treats from scratch for their adoring husbands and children. Their lives look perfect, and they appear happy as can be.

The tradwife movement, short for “traditional wife,” has gained traction on social media, encouraging women to embrace domesticity and submission as a form of empowerment. Although it is up to women to decide their life path, this trend poses a dangerous regression that threatens women’s agency and equality.

The driving ideas behind this movement are not new; they have emerged in earlier backlashes to feminism, such as Helen Andelin’s “Fascinating Womanhood,” a book promoting traditional gender roles as a counter to Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” and feminist progress in the 1960s.

In the past few years, tradwife content has thrived on TikTok and Instagram, where influencers like Hannah Neeleman and Nara Smith have amassed large followings by romanticizing their lives full of homemaking and submission. One of Neeleman’s TikToks, where she makes sandwiches with made-from-scratch sourdough, has reached over 180 million views, and countless of her other cooking videos have tens of millions.

Tradwife influencers use carefully curated visuals of minimalist homes, pastoral scenes and calm routines to sell an idealized version of domestic life. These influencers present tradwife ideals as aspirational and attainable, reaching millions and shaping cultural conversations around womanhood. 

Some women are drawn to the movement as a response to burnout from juggling careers and domestic responsibilities, seeking simplicity and relief from what researchers call the “second shift.” Researchers from the University of Michigan define the second shift as “the household and childcare duties that follow the day’s work for pay outside the home.” The promise of a slower, more meaningful life rooted in faith and tradition is attractive to some women. 

But pressuring women to conform to rigid gender norms, as tradwife content can do, is correlated with harming women’s self-esteem, according to a 2010 study published in  Psychology of Women Quarterly. Tradwife content is also linked to other alt-right, anti-feminist content that can also be psychologically harmful.

The “stay-at-home girlfriend” trend is a smaller subsection of the tradwife movement. “SAHG” influencers promote being submissive to their partners while framing financial dependency as idealistic, despite the risks to women’s long-term economic security and stability that this lifestyle can pose. This power dynamic is even more dangerous than being a housewife because the power dynamic can be skewed further in favor of their partner since they have none of the legal protections that come with marriage.

The celebration and romanticization of tradwife choices often ignore the external pressures that factor into making these decisions, such as economic necessity, lack of social support and deeply ingrained gender norms that limit true personal agency. Decisions to fully embrace domesticity without fully exploring other options are rarely made in a vacuum, and the normalization of these roles reinforces broader societal inequalities.

Feminism has historically fought for women’s autonomy, economic independence and the right to define women’s identities beyond domestic roles. It’s been 50 years since women were first allowed to have credit in their own name, and we have feminism to thank for this change. The tradwife movement’s influence and the praise it has received from the far right can undermine collective progress toward gender equality, making it harder to advocate for policies that support women’s autonomy and economic independence.

As a college student, it is not my job to tell other women how to live their lives. I also have the highest respect for women who want to be mothers, and I believe that dreams of motherhood are just as valid as dreams of careers.

However, we must recognize that the tradwife movement offers only superficial solutions to deep-seated issues like burnout and economic insecurity. Instead of simply retreating to restrictive ideals, society should push for deeper reforms that expand possibilities for all women, including pay equity, better support for working families and valuing diverse choices.