The Norwegian Route Out of Tradwife Hell
America is witnessing a dramatic reinvestment in traditional gender roles. The way out of this situation isn’t through culture war discourse — it’s through pro-worker, gender-egalitarian social policy, like Norway’s paternity leave system.
A father and daughter on a swing by the shore in Gudvangen, Norway, on September 17, 2024. (Manuel Romano / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Gender role orthodoxy is back, baby.
On Instagram, a tradwife influencer bakes lemon squares in a milkmaid dress beneath the caption, “Making dessert for my husband because somebody has to pay the bills and it’s not going to be me.” In a separate video, she makes a meatball sub from scratch while counseling that the cure for relationship conflict is to “put on a pretty dress and make him a homecooked meal joyfully.”
Meanwhile, on YouTube, an aspiring men’s relationship coach cautions that “spending a large amount of time with women” makes “a man’s heart grow weak”; men should instead spend their time out of the house, making money and “skill stacking.” Elsewhere, he offers shirtless thoughts on the virtue of male unavailability, counseling men to reject women’s requests for assistance and company.
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