Don't believe the grift. Conservative women don't want a 'trad life.' |
Sheryl Sandberg is leaning back in.
The billionaire technology executive and philanthropist recently instituted an organizational overhaul of her feminist nonprofit, Lean In, shedding a quarter of its staff, appointing a 25-year-old former Meta employee as its new chief executive, and refocusing its energy on combating the tradwife (traditional wife) movement.
Sandberg, who served as the chief operating officer of Meta, formerly Facebook, from 2008 to 2022, is one of the world's most prominent advocates for women in business. Her bestselling 2013 book, "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead," sought to encourage women to assert themselves in the workplace, and her nonprofit is dedicated to the same cause.
It makes sense that she’d see the tradwife internet subculture – which romanticizes women’s roles as stay-at-home wives and mothers – as a threat to feminism and progress.
As a right-of-center woman, I have my disagreements with Sandberg’s brand of girlboss feminism, which seems to valorize women who put their corporate lives above all else. Nevertheless, I welcome Sandberg’s effort to push back against the tradwife trend.
Why? Because tradwife influencers promote a message that misleads young women, particularly conservative ones, all while living by vastly different sets of rules themselves.
I was drawn to tradwife content. I'm glad I saw through it.
For those who may not be chronically online like myself, a tradwife is a woman who lives her life according to........