04/04/2026
Men with the most hostile and derogatory views of women are the most enthusiastic supporters of the tradwife movement -- not the chivalrous protectors the movement's social media aesthetic would have you believe.
That's the central finding of the first study ever conducted into how men perceive the tradwife trend, published this week in the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly. Researchers surveyed 595 American men aged 18 to 29 about their attitudes toward the movement -- the social media subculture in which women influencers promote a lifestyle of total domestic submission, with husbands as sole breadwinners and decision-makers and wives devoted entirely to homemaking and childrearing. Some adherents go even further, giving men full financial control of the household.
The researchers -- UNLV developmental psychologist Rachael D. Robnett and Matthew Hammond of Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand -- went in expecting that men's support for the tradwife lifestyle would be rooted in what psychologists call "benevolent s*xism" -- the chivalric impulse to protect and provide for women, to view them as fragile and in need of care. That would have aligned with how tradwife content presents itself on social media: the softness, the devotion, the hushed domesticity.
The data said otherwise. "We expected protective paternalism to play a central role in explaining why some men perceive the tradwife movement positively," Robnett told PsyPost. "We were taken aback to discover that it was instead men's overt s*xism that played the most important role in their attitudes about the tradwife movement."
Social media's presentation of the tradwife lifestyle -- the sourdough cooling on scrubbed wooden counters, the vintage aprons, the nostalgic aesthetic that has attracted millions of followers to tradwife influencers -- leans heavily on benevolent s*xism. But this study suggests that aesthetic is obscuring the harsher attitudes that actually underpin much of the male support for the movement.
Hostile s*xism -- openly resentful, adversarial attitudes toward women, rooted in the belief that women use s*x and manipulation to undermine men's power -- was the strongest predictor of whether a man viewed the tradwife lifestyle favorably.
The only facet of benevolent s*xism that predicted favorable views was what researchers call "heteros*xual intimacy" -- the belief that a man is emotionally incomplete without a woman. Combined with hostile s*xism, this paints a coherent and troubling psychological portrait: men who depend on women for intimacy and resent that dependence.
"Together, these findings indicate that men who perceive the tradwife movement favorably believe that they rely on women for intimacy and simultaneously resent that this is the case," Robnett explained. "This mentality could put tradwives in a precarious position considering the amount of control -- both financial and otherwise -- that they yield to their husbands."
The study's findings take on added weight when placed alongside the broader political project to push women back into financial dependence on men. In January, the Heritage Foundation -- the organization behind Project 2025, the governing blueprint for the Trump administration -- published a 191-page report called "Saving America by Saving the Family" that explicitly identifies birth control, women's higher education, and women's workforce participation as drivers of declining birth rates -- and treats all three as problems to be solved.
The report blames "second-wave feminism and the s*xual revolution" for promoting "an individualistic, child-free, marriage-free, s*xual 'liberation'" and attributes falling birth rates to "the proliferation of birth control, more prospects for women to receive higher education and work outside the home."
The tradwife movement is the cultural arm of that agenda -- romanticizing a lifestyle of total financial dependence on men while powerful institutions work to make that dependence harder to escape. This study reveals who is most drawn to that vision: not men motivated by care or protection, but men who resent the women they claim to want to provide for.
As Robnett put it: the men who most favor the tradwife lifestyle also tend to hold "patronizing and derogatory forms of s*xism that are harmful to women." The women who yield their autonomy to those men may never recognize the contempt beneath the romance -- because on social media, it all looks like love.
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--> To read the full study, "Ambivalent S*xism Theory as a Framework for Understanding Men's Attitudes About the Tradwife Movement," visit the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03616843261433199
--> To read PsyPost's detailed interview with lead researcher Rachael Robnett, visit https://www.psypost.org/men-who-favor-the-tradwife-lifestyle-often-view-the-women-in-it-with-derision/
--> To read the Heritage Foundation's 191-page "Saving America by Saving the Family" report in their own words, visit https://www.heritage.org/marriage-and-family/report/saving-america-saving-the-family-foundation-the-next-250-years
--> To read the Guttmacher Institute's analysis of how Project 2025 targets s*xual and reproductive health, visit https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/how-project-2025-seeks-obliterate-srhr
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For an unflinching look at the vast online ecosystem of male hostility toward women -- from incels to pickup artists to Men's Rights Activists -- we recommend "Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pickup Artists" at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9781728290904 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/3Oke3CI (Amazon)
For a powerful book for teen and adult readers about the early warning signs of controlling relationships and how to get help, we highly recommend "Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men" at https://www.amightygirl.com/why-does-he-do-that
For a practical, game-changing book about creating genuine partnership in a household -- instead of the one-sided submission the tradwife movement glorifies -- we highly recommend "Fair Play" at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780525541943 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4e2RWet (Amazon)
For confidence-building books for tween and teen girls, we recommend "The Confidence Code for Girls" (https://www.amightygirl.com/the-confidence-code-for-girls) for ages 8 to 12 and "The Self-Esteem Workbook for Teens" for ages 13 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/the-self-esteem-workbook-for-teens)
For books that empower girls to take control of their own financial futures, visit our blog post "Manage Money Like a Mighty Girl: 30 Resources to Teach Kids Financial Literacy" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14495
For an excellent book about the long fight for women's rights in the US, we recommend "The Women's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote" at https://www.amightygirl.com/the-womans-hour
For books for children and teens about real-life girls and women who refused to be defined by what others expected of them, visit our blog post "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Girls & Women Who Fought for Change" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364
