The advent of social media has created a lucrative title for many—influencer. An influencer is a social media user who has amassed a large following that is engaged with their postings.
They leverage the engagement for advertiser dollars and/or partnerships with brands to promote products (think the Kardashians with their flat belly teas). According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the name indicates a level of influence and ability to inspire or guide the actions of their followers.
The number of followers an influencer has determines whether they are attractive to brands (for advertising dollars and partnerships). According to Forbes, influencers can be nano (1,000-10,000 followers), micro (10,000-100,000 followers), mid-tier (50,000-500,000 followers) or mega (over 1 million followers).
There are influencers for every walk of life—fashion, business, travel, food, sports, fitness. According to Google Trends, among the most searched online in recent years is tradwives.
Tradwives—or traditional wives—are those who practice “traditional” gender roles within their marriages. These roles are based on the biblical model, which allegedly directs women to be homemakers and submissive to and reliant upon their husbands for direction and financial support.
The locus of a tradwife’s focus is the rearing of children, preferably multiple children. But she also focuses on maintaining the home, with tasks like laundry, cooking, cleaning and gardening. Managing the family’s finances, including engaging in work outside of the home, is left entirely up to the husband. In return, he returns home to a happy wife, a clean home, a hot meal and well-cared for children. At least that is the picture painted by tradwife influencers on social media.
Nara Smith, a 22-year-old former fashion model and a mother of 3, regularly obtains millions of views across all social media platforms. Married in 2020, she has had 3 children in 4 years and still makes time to post videos of herself making sumptuous meals from scratch, while wearing a face full of makeup and designer outfits.
Another social media influencer tradwife is Estee Williams, a 25-year-old. While Williams does not have Smith’s reach (her followers number in the hundreds of thousands, not millions), her posts often go viral for what can be perceived as their regressiveness. For instance, she has indicated that she does not leave the home without her husband’s permission. She also only dresses in a way that her husband “appreciates.” Her description on Instagram is simply “Traditional Wife.”
Last is 27-year-old Olivia Chukwu, a tradwife based in London. On any given day, Olivia posts about cleaning the home, taking care of her 2 children and preparing dinner for the family. She has millions of followers across all social media platforms.
But are any of these women actually traditional wives in the historical sense? Traditional wives are reliant upon their husbands for financial support—that is the exchange and agreement made. The wives will stay home, have children, rear those children, maintain the home and cook and clean for the family, so the husband does not have to. In exchange, the husband provides financial support for the family.
Social media influencing is a lucrative business. According to Impact.com, in 2024, the global influencer marketing industry is expected to balloon to $24 billion—an increase of over 300% since 2019. Global brands are investing in influencer content because marketing shows that such content performs better and has more organic engagement than brand-created content.
According to Forbes, sponsored posts and advertisement on non-sponsored posts can generate hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars for influencers with the type of reach these women have. The fact that these women are peddling content on social media and getting paid for it makes them wage earners and not reliant on their husbands.
More than 56% of American women are in the workforce, per the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most by choice, but some by necessity. Some would say that tradwife influencers are pushing a regressive view of marriage, womanhood and parenthood on social media—which is financially rewarded by brands and advertisers—while not subscribing to such in their actual lives. As such, these so-called tradwives are not actually tradwives.