If the Bible is the inerrant word of God, it transcends time. If the Bible transcends time, it transcends cultural shifts. When examining cultural shifts, let us do so through a biblical lens.
As a stay-at-home mom, I have been labeled a “trad wife.” I don’t work a job outside the home. I make a lot of my food from scratch. And I’m the primary caretaker for my children.
From the outside looking in, it seems like I fit in the box of the “trad wife” cultural norm.
Unfortunately for cultural shifts, I don’t strive to be a part of a group that’s gaining popularity. I strive to live and model Biblical womanhood. And in my opinion, true, literal, Biblical womanhood is being lost to the cultural norm that is the “trad wife” movement.
Like Paul encouraged Titus in his letter named after the disciple (see Titus 2), I listened to the advice of older women around me and prioritized being a homemaker. Like the Proverbs 31 woman, I work faithfully for my household. I’m often burning the midnight oil (Proverbs 31:15) and carefully considering purchases (Proverbs 31:16), all with the trust and confidence of a devoted husband (Proverbs 31:10).
The life choices I have made weren’t made because I saw everyone around me making them. They were made because that’s how my husband and I felt God wanted homes to be organized.
If we are letting a cultural norm influence the organization and operation of our homes, we have completely missed the Christian values that God’s word is trying to teach us.
Let’s examine the “trad wife” movement through a Biblical lens and see if things like traditional gender roles and immaculate homes are true Christian values.
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What is a “Trad Wife”?
Trad wife is a shortened form of traditional wife. It typically refers to a woman who has adopted traditional gender roles in her marriage, rooted in mid-20th-century cultural norms (think the American 1950s woman). Before women widely worked in the workforce after World War II, they were home caretakers. They cleaned, cooked, reared children, and supported their husbands’ careers.
The choice to pursue traditional values – like women keeping a tidy home, rearing children, and not making an income from work outside the house – is the bedrock of the trad wife movement.
It doesn’t seem as though it’s a choice for today’s trad wives – it’s a priority for them.
Serving their families through domestic arts is the most important thing they can do with their lives. While a career may offer fulfillment, it’s not something that will fulfill tradwives.
How did the #tradwife trend start?
The trad wife movement ramped up around 2019 and 2020 (although it’s probably always been alive and well).
At that time, there seemed to be a rising call from the feminist movement to focus on equality. The battle of the sexes was raging on as the United States saw its first female get elected to the White House and social movements focused on sexual assault – all during the pandemic!
It’s no surprise that well-intentioned women started sharing their stay-at-home journeys on social media. If feminists were praising working women, stay-at-home women have the right to praise women who ditched society’s idea of success.
Though the same echo from feminist ideologies always remains – leave your domestic responsibilities and enrich yourself. Namely, through a career.
Women pursuing a career isn’t a new idea to the 21st century, though.
A History of Women in the Workforce
For at least the last 100 years, there have been women in the United States workforce.
Women’s participation in the workforce climbed in the 1930s because many factory jobs were considered “women’s work.” Those “women’s work” positions were untouched by the stock market crash that created the Great Depression. In 1930, estimates say there were 10.5 million women in the workforce.
Any income during the Great Depression would have been a necessity. Unemployment rose dramatically as stock values plummeted. By 1932, one in four workers were unemployed. The nation saw hunger marches and small riots as some petitioned lawmakers and landlords for financial aid.
By 1940, estimates say there were as many as 13.5 million women working outside the home (this article says that’s 15 percent of married women and 50 percent of single women.)
Just ten years after the Great Depression began (“Black Thursday,” October 24, 1929), World War II began (September 1, 1939).
It’s important to note why women entered the workforce during World War II. Similar to victory gardens or food rations, women filling men’s shoes in the workforce was considered a contribution to the war effort.
According to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, the United States Army, Navy, and Marines deployed 334,473 people in 1939. By 1942, the Coast Guard began sending recruits.
By 1945, estimates say 12,209,238 men and women served in World War II.
From 1941 to 1945, 73 percent of servicemen and women spent time overseas. The average duration of service was 33 months.
Every branch of the military suffered casualties. In all, the United States Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard lost 407,316 souls.
Before World War 2, women were predominantly nurses, teachers, and clerks. Some factory work was available to women, but they made more ground in being able to secure blue-collar jobs after the war.
As the second wave of feminism swept through the United States in the 1960s to 1970s, things like Title IX were passed to ensure women had equal opportunities in sports and education.
In 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. Even though it failed, the federal government and all states have passed legislation that protects the equal rights of everyone, regardless of their sex.
As of 2024, women make up 47 percent of the modern workforce. That’s 79 million women!
As of April 2025, the United States Department of Labor reports the top five most common occupations for women are registered nurses, elementary and middle school teachers, managers, customer service representatives, and secretaries and administrative assistants.
According to the DOL women’s unemployment rate in 2025 is lower than men’s. Women aged 16 years and older are looking at a 3.9% unemployment rate, while men aged 16 years and older are looking at a 4.3% unemployment rate.
With almost half of today’s American workforce being women, it begs the question – is homemaking a Biblical command for women? Are women sinning if they make money from a job outside the home?
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Photo by Andrew Neel via Unsplash.
What the Bible Says About Women’s Work
The Titus 2 passage is probably the most referenced New Testament Scripture when it comes to women and their careers. Many like to reference Proverbs 31 and praise the Proverbs 31 woman for her fervor in serving her home. But she wasn’t a real woman.
Since she wasn’t a real woman, we can know that this is a goal. These are qualities and attributes that we can work toward.
Speaking of working toward something, it’s important to note that the Proverbs 31 woman wasn’t born a dynamo capable of clothing her entire household on no sleep. Households are built. Households are curated over time.
It’s not likely she juggled a newborn, older children, a household staff, hobbies, and joined her husband at the city gates while dinner slowly roasted over the fire. She had help from the household staff. She “carefully” considered fields.
This was a woman who wasn’t rushed. She knew that good things are built over time. She purposefully and dutifully dedicated herself to her home. What an incredible tip we can take from Proverbs!
Your home isn’t going to run smoothly overnight. It’s going to take time and dedication to find the organizational system, planner, rhythm, or daily routine you and your family need to thrive. You’re going to need help. You’re going to need community.
Let’s embrace that instead of comparing ourselves to women who have been homemakers for 3, 5, or even 10 years longer than we have. Let’s embrace finding what works for our families instead of comparing ourselves to smaller families, bigger families, families with older children, or families with different values.
While the entire Bible is used for our instruction (2 Timothy 3:16), it’s important to focus on the Biblical commands that come from God.
Where in Scripture does it say a woman’s sole career is the care of her home? Nowhere.
Titus 2:3-5 reads, “3. the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things – 4. that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5. to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed,” (NKJV).
I wrote an entire blog post about what God’s definition for a homemaker was – read it here. In sum, a homemaker is a keeper of the house, a domestic.
Think of everything that falls under domestic arts today. Cooking, cleaning, baking, hosting, crafting, decorating – the list goes on and on!
What I’d like to focus on now is the fact that Paul is telling Titus to tell older women to encourage younger women to be homemakers. “Admonish,” the New King James Version uses.
Admonish means to warn someone firmly. But in the Greek (the language the New Testament was written in), the word means to disciple, hold one to his duty, or to exhort earnestly.
Why would God inspire the New Testament writers to train (disciple) Christian women to be homemakers if it wasn’t a worthy career choice? If it wasn’t fulfilling? Why would the older women heartfully appeal (earnestly exhort) to the younger women to lovingly tend to their homes (Titus 2:4)?
We find the answer in Titus 2:5 – “so that the word of God may not be blasphemed.” Blasphemed here, in the Greek, means “to be evil spoken of.”
God’s word is inspired by God (2 Peter 1:21). God’s word is truth (John 17:17). We know from other places in Scripture that God isn’t going to lead us astray. If we can glorify God by serving our families, I simply can’t think of a better way to live my life.
That’s a key point that the trad wife movement has tapped into that I don’t think we focus on enough. Homemaking is a service higher than yourself. That’s why it’s so fulfilling.
Sure, you aren’t given the recognition you think you might deserve. But you are the reason someone else can succeed. Because you are humbling yourself, someone else can be exalted.
Does that sound like Someone you know?
Is the Trad Wife Trend Biblical?
What do you think? Does the trad wife trend scream Biblical teaching or does it show signs of a passing trend?
In my opinion, the trad wife movement is rooted in Biblical belief. But the way it can be presented, particularly on social media, lessens the impact it could have on this generation of women.
I also think there are key points of the movement that fail to reach a majority of women. I touch more on all of this in part two of this series.
What are your thoughts about the trad wife movement? Comment on this blog post and let me know!
Are Women Suited to Traditional Roles?
In almost 100 years, I find it interesting that women have continued to pursue careers as nurses, educators, and administrators.
Before World War II, that’s where women were to work. “Pink-collar” jobs, as they were called. Jobs dedicated to caregiving or service.
Now, 80-plus years later, women are employed in similar jobs. So much so, they’re the top 5 careers for American women according to the Department of Labor!
I think this begs the question – if almost 100 years have gone by and women are still in these roles, are they suited to them? Inherent capabilities aren’t something we can define with a cultural trend.
Let’s take distinct gender roles out of it. Let’s take our outliers – think of things like the men who are nurses – out of it. Let’s look at the qualities and abilities women possess that men don’t.
Women are nurturers, comforters, and caregivers. Men are defenders, protectors, and providers. This is what lends women to be great nurses. Their degree of attentiveness to a single person or cause, combined with the ability to diagnose, correct, and encourage, is life-changing!
Women can pop in and out of a project and complete it with a great degree of success. Men tend to focus on one project for hours on end. This is what lends women to be great administrators. Fielding phone calls, complaints, messages, and expectations is like managing a circus. But women can manage all that and still complete side projects for others.
Finally, women have a natural ability to anticipate needs and foster opportunities for connection. This is what makes women great teachers. We know what children are going to need to thrive, and we have the gumption to see that that happens.
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Photo by Dane Deaner via Unsplash.
The Harm in Homemade Definitions
When we look to cultural norms to define what God-given capabilities women have, we are doing a disservice to women.
We are telling women that it isn’t enough to be nurturers or caregivers. You also have to be dedicated to climbing the corporate ladder, cut-throat, and successful based on metrics someone somewhere made up.
How tempting is it for all of us to pursue something that yields tangible fruit? You can’t deny numbers or quarterly projections.
There’s also no tangible return on child-rearing. You may not see the manners or routines you teach your child for years to come!
Luckily, the trad wife movement brought back the idea that a stay-at-home wife is a worthy career to consider. Unfortunately, some turned God’s great idea into another social media trend.
Check out Part 2 of this series to read “Why Trad Wife Content Can Be Controversial (and Misleading).”
Keeping Our Eyes Focused On God
My goal with this series is to point us back to God. And ultimately, that means pointing you back to the Bible.
That’s why I created a short Bible study that, I hope, points you back to Biblical womanhood. Submit your email below to get your free, short Bible study on Biblical womanhood.
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Photo by Ryan Booth via Unsplash.
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