A tradwife (a neologism for traditional wife or traditional housewife),^[1][2][3] in recent Western culture, typically denotes a woman who believes in and practices patriarchal sex roles and marriages. Many tradwives believe that they do not sacrifice women's rights by choosing to take a homemaking role within their marriage.^[2] Some may choose to leave careers to focus instead on assuming the father's half of unpaid family work.^[2][4]

The patriarchal housewife aesthetic has since spread throughout the Internet in part through social media featuring women extolling the virtues of behaving as the ideal woman.^[5]

The tradwife subculture is based on advocating for patriarchal traditional values, and, in particular, a 'traditional' view of wives as mothers and homemakers.^[6]

Despite this, the group is diverse demographically and ideologically.^[7] Influences on trend range from 1950s-era American culture, Christian religious values, conservative politics, choice feminism, and neopaganism.^[6][7][8] Commentators have noted that "there is more class than racial diversity in tradwifery, though the content is not as white as one might assume".^[7]

According to an article published in Refinery29, while most tradwives are white, a growing number of Black women are embracing the concept of patriarchal marriage, not explicitly using the "tradwife" neologism, but instead framing their identity within a "submissive" or "Biblical" marriage. These Black women claim that "traditional marriage is the key to liberation from being overworked, economic insecurity, and the stress of trying to survive in a world hostile to our survival and existence".^[9] The article criticized this perspective as lacking awareness of broader structural and social issues.^[9]

The tradwife aesthetic has been criticized due to associations in the United States and Britain with the alt-right and white nationalism,^[4] and critics often stipulate that tradwives embody what has been described as "toxic femininity" and internalized sexism.^{[15][16][17][18]} Critics claim this is a tactic used by male alt-right adherents to recruit more women to far-right causes.^[5]

Despite the link to extreme right-wing ideologies, not all tradwives endorse extreme ideas, and ideology is not an integral part of the subculture.^[6] Prominent British tradwife influencer Alena Pettitt posted on social media in 2020 that she was "dumbfounded" by the media's "smear campaign" against tradwives, arguing they were all being unfairly linked to extremism.^[6]

Charles Sturt University academic Dr. Kristy Campion, who specializes in extremism, has researched tradwives and says that people should avoid "denouncing all tradwives as far-right extremists, holding them accountable for views they may not hold and demonising what is, for many women, an extremely personal choice".^[6]

Seyward Darby discussed the tradwife aesthetic in her 2020 book, Sisters in Hate: American Women and White Extremism, and shared interviews with women who call themselves traditional.^[19] She found that some women in the movement espoused tenets of the American political far right, including white supremacy, antisemitism, populism, and other ultraconservative beliefs.^[19] Other researchers have identified a wide range of political views among tradwives which, while primarily conservative, range from the moderate to the extreme.^[8]

• Shared earning/shared parenting marriage
• Be fruitful and multiply
• Complementarianism
• Cottagecore
• Culture of Domesticity
• Natalism
• Separate spheres
• Wojak