Ambivalent Sexism Theory as a Framework for Understanding Men's Attitudes About the #Tradwife Movement

Ambivalent Sexism Theory

According to ambivalent sexism theory (Glick & Fiske, 1996; see also Bareket & Fiske, 2023; Connor et al., 2017), interdependence between women and men gives rise to two complementary forms of sexism: hostile sexism and benevolent sexism. Hostile sexism is characterized by overtly negative feelings and attributions toward women as well as beliefs that women seek to humiliate men and undermine men's power by using sexuality. In contrast, benevolent sexism is a more subtle and patronizing form of sexism that expresses adoration, paternalism, and reverence toward women who conform to gender-role norms. These two forms of sexism function in concert to exert control over women: They threaten women who behave in ways that challenge men's power (hostile sexism) and reinforce women's adherence to gender-role norms via the idealization of women and men cooperating in heteronormative relationship roles (benevolent sexism; Bareket & Fiske, 2023). Consistent with these points, international research illustrates that hostile and benevolent sexism are positively correlated across a wide range of cultural contexts (Glick et al., 2001; Hammond et al., 2025).

Other Sources of Variation in Men's Tradwife Familiarity and Favorability

Although ambivalent sexism is the focal point of the current research, our analyses included several additional constructs that have theoretical or empirical connections to the #tradwife movement. First, we conducted analyses that examined whether men's familiarity with the #tradwife movement differed as a function of three sociodemographic variables—race, religious affiliation, and political affiliation—that have been linked to the #tradwife movement in prior research (see Bower, 2024; Stotzer & Nelson, 2025; Sykes & Hopner, 2024). This work suggests that tradwives are often White, Christian, and Republican (i.e., the most prominent conservative political party in the U.S.). Thus, we anticipated that men from these backgrounds would show higher levels of familiarity with the #tradwife movement relative to the rest of the sample.

Second, when investigating the association between men's tradwife favorability and their ambivalent sexism, we accounted for theoretically-grounded covariates with the goal of conducting a relatively conservative test. Specifically, we considered the following sociodemographic variables: age, marital status, political affiliation, and level of education. Research suggests that being older, married, and more politically conservative are associated with more traditional gender attitudes (e.g., Bareket & Fiske, 2023; Hammond et al., 2018; Katz-Wise et al., 2010). Political conservativism has also been identified as an important undercurrent in the #tradwife movement (Sykes & Hopner, 2024). Regarding level of education, research tends to show that people with more experience in higher education are less traditional in their gender attitudes (Bareket & Fiske, 2023). We also considered participants’ religious background (i.e., religious affiliation and religiosity). Similar to political conservativism, Christian religious values are a common thread in the #tradwife movement (Stotzer & Nelson, 2025; Sykes & Hopner, 2024). Relatedly, there is overlap between benevolent sexism and the fundamental tenets of several organized religions (Bareket & Fiske, 2023; Burn & Busso, 2005; Glick et al., 2002). Accordingly, it is plausible that both Christian religious affiliation and higher levels of general religiosity would be associated with participants’ attitudes about the #tradwife movement.

Finally, we explored whether racial background moderated the associations between the facets of benevolent sexism and men's tradwife attitudes. Research that tests for racial variation in sexist attitudes and their correlates is fairly limited. For example, Davis and colleagues (2022) recently pointed out that there is a surprising dearth of research that examines racial variation in benevolent sexism and called for more research to this effect (see also Hayes & Swim, 2013). Relatedly, Bareket and Fiske's (2023) systematic review of the ambivalent sexism literature has very little discussion of the interplay between people's racial background and their gender attitudes. Because of the dearth of previous research focusing on racial variation in sexist attitudes and their correlates, we did not advance predictions about specific patterns of effects in the racial moderation analyses.

The Present Study

The overarching goal of the current research was to attain a deeper understanding of attitudes toward tradwives and the #tradwife movement among young men. Specifically, our sample consisted of men who ranged in age from 18 to 29. This focus was guided by evidence indicating that women who identify as tradwives on social media often range in age from 20 to 30 (Stotzer & Nelson, 2025). We were also interested in capturing men's attitudes as they approach age 30, which is the median age of marriage for men in the U.S. (U.S. Census, 2024) and the age at which people transition out of emerging adulthood (Arnett et al., 2014). Although a few studies have focused on women in tradwife communities (Bower, 2024; Mattheis, 2019; Stotzer & Nelson, 2025; Sykes & Hopner, 2024), we are not familiar with any research that explores men's perspectives. To this end, the current research addressed the hypotheses and research questions listed below. The hypotheses and analytic approach were preregistered on the Open Science Framework (OSF): https://osf.io/k8a97/overview?view_only=c01f520a30d84204a9db0f61b05695c3.

First, we examined whether men's familiarity with the #tradwife movement varied based on their background. Drawing from the research described earlier, we anticipated that familiarity would vary based on race, religious background, and political affiliation. Specifically, Hypothesis 1 was as follows: Relative to their counterparts from other groups, men who identified as White (Hypothesis 1a), Christian (Hypothesis 1b), and Republican (Hypothesis 1c) would be more familiar with the #tradwife movement.

Second, we tested for links between men's ambivalent sexism and their attitudes toward tradwives and the #tradwife movement. As discussed earlier, we thought it was plausible that hostile sexism and the three facets of benevolent sexism would all be associated with men's tradwife favorability; however, we expected that the association involving protective paternalism would be particularly strong. This brings us to Hypothesis 2: Men's greater endorsement of protective paternalism would be positively associated with more favorable impressions of the #tradwife movement. We further anticipated that this would be the case after covarying men's sociodemographic background (age, marital status, level of education, and political affiliation), religion (religious affiliation, religiosity), hostile sexism, and the other facets of benevolent sexism (heterosexual intimacy and complementary gender differentiation). We tested this hypothesis through hierarchical regression, which allowed us to examine the incremental variance that each set of predictors explained in men's tradwife attitudes. In the regression model that tested Hypothesis 2, we also explored Research Question 1: Does race moderate the associations between the three facets of benevolent sexism and men's tradwife attitudes? These moderation analyses were preregistered as exploratory; we did not advance any predictions about the directionality of effects.

Finally, we used qualitative analyses to more deeply understand men's meaning-making surrounding the tradwife movement. Specifically, Research Question 2 included: Why do men think the #tradwife movement is appealing to some women and couples? Although we considered whether men's responses included sentiments related to ambivalent sexism, we also allowed for emergent (i.e., data-driven) themes in our analysis.

Participants

Participants were 595 men who were recruited via a Qualtrics panel. All participants were from the U.S. On average, participants were nearly 25 years of age (M = 24.88, SD = 3.17). Most participants identified as heterosexual (92%, n = 546), with other participants identifying as bisexual (7%, n = 40) or pansexual (1%, n = 8). The majority of participants reported that they were not currently in a romantic relationship (61%, n = 365). Of those who were in a romantic relationship, roughly half (54%; n = 124) reported that they were married. In terms of racial background, participants identified as American Indian (3%, n = 17), Asian American (4%, n = 22), Black (37%, n = 222), Latiné/o (14%, n = 82), White (50%, n = 299), Pacific Islander (1%, n = 4), and with groups not listed (1%, n = 2). Percentages do not sum to 100 because participants could select multiple racial backgrounds. The analyses that explored racial variation focused on the three largest racial groups in the sample: Black, Latiné/o, and White. In terms of political affiliation, nearly half of the participants described themselves as Democrat (47%, n = 277); other common affiliations were Independent (26%, n = 156) and Republican (21%, n = 126). Participants primarily identified as Christian (60%, n = 357) with other common selections being atheist (16%, n = 92) and agnostic (11%, n = 64). Finally, in terms of education level, analyses contrasted participants who had up to a 2-year degree (70%, n = 424) with participants who had a 4-year or graduate/professional degree (30%, n = 181).

Procedure

Data collection occurred during July and August of 2025. Participation occurred via an anonymous online survey hosted on the Qualtrics platform, and participants were compensated for their time (see below). To be eligible to participate, prospective participants needed to identify as men (cisgender and transgender men were both eligible) who were romantically attracted to women. Additional eligibility criteria included being between the ages of 18 and 29, U.S. residents, and able to read and write in English.

All participants provided informed consent. The consent form described the study as a project that aimed to “understand men's awareness and perceptions of trends in social media and media more generally.” After completing the survey, participants received points on a rewards card that could be redeemed for cash, airline miles, or online shopping (approximately $5 USD). The data collection process included a number of safeguards against fraudulent or inattentive responding. First, the Qualtrics survey administration platform uses several methods to prevent the same individual from responding multiple times. It also uses strategies such as CAPTCHA questions to screen for AI/bot responding. Second, participants who provided the same response (e.g., “strongly agree”) on all or nearly all of the scales were excluded, as were participants who did not meet the inclusion criteria. Third, two attention-check questions were embedded in the survey (e.g., “Select strongly agree to show that you are paying attention.”), and participants had to correctly answer both to remain in the sample. The aforementioned sample size of 595 was obtained after applying these exclusion criteria.

The measures examined in the current research were part of a larger parent survey that also included questions about men's media preferences and measures that were not the focus of the current research. Outside of the current study, data from the parent survey have not been utilized for any other purpose. Measures examined in the current research are reported below in the order in which participants completed them. Participants could not return to earlier pages of the survey. A full list of survey questions can be found on OSF: https://osf.io/k8a97/overview?view_only=c01f520a30d84204a9db0f61b05695c3.

Hostile Sexism and Benevolent Sexism Facets

The ambivalent sexism inventory (Glick & Fiske, 1996) assessed the three facets of benevolent sexism and hostile sexism. The three facets of benevolent sexism (i.e., protective paternalism, complementary gender differentiation, and heterosexual intimacy) were measured with the corresponding subscales from the ambivalent sexism inventory. Participants rated each item on a 6-point scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). Responses to the items for each subscale were averaged to create three composite scores, with higher scores indicating higher levels of each construct. Protective paternalism was measured with four items. Sample items include “Women should be cherished and protected by men” and “Men should be willing to sacrifice their own wellbeing in order to provide financially for the women in their lives.” Internal reliability for this scale was adequate (α = .70). Complementary gender differentiation was measured with three items (e.g., “Many women have a quality of purity that few men possess.”). Internal reliability for this scale was adequate (α = .74). Finally, heterosexual intimacy was measured with four items (e.g., “Every man ought to have a woman he adores.”). Internal reliability for this scale was good (α = .80).

Hostile sexism was measured with 11 items that participants rated on a 6-point scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). Responses to these items were averaged to create a composite such that higher scores indicated higher levels of hostile sexism. Sample items include “Most women fail to appreciate all that men do for them” and “Once a woman gets a man to commit to her, she usually tries to put him on a tight leash.” Internal reliability for this scale was excellent (α = .93).

Tradwives and the #Tradwife Movement

We asked three sets of questions pertaining to tradwives and the #tradwife movement. Each set of questions appeared on its own page in the online survey.

Favorability Toward Tradwives and the #Tradwife Movement

We used the second set of questions as the dependent measure in the analyses pertaining to Hypothesis 2 and Research Question 1, which focused on identifying attitudinal and sociodemographic predictors of men's favorability toward tradwives and the #tradwife movement. To ensure that participants had a shared understanding of what it means to be a tradwife, we provided them with a definition before they answered the questions. The definition was derived from scholarship focused on tradwives (e.g., Bower, 2024; Stotzer & Nelson, 2025) as well as a prominent popular press story from the BBC about tradwives:

The term tradwife is a combination of the words “traditional” and “wife.” The #tradwife movement is driven by social media influencers who embrace traditional gender roles in their marriage and post images of their lifestyle online. Tradwives choose to be homemakers instead of engaging in the paid workforce. Many tradwives also emphasize the importance of submitting to their husbands. For example, in a BBC interview, tradwife Alena Pettitt explained that being a tradwife is about “submitting to and spoiling my husband like it's 1959.”

The survey prompted participants to keep this definition in mind while responding to the scale that we developed to measure their tradwife attitudes. We were not aware of preexisting scales that assess attitudes about tradwives or the #tradwife movement. Accordingly, we developed a pool of items that were informed by popular media stories about tradwives such as the BBC piece referenced above and our scholarly background in the area of gender attitudes. For example, some of the items reflected the tendency for women to be perceived as more dedicated to their families when they adhere to gender-role traditions (e.g., Robnett et al., 2016; Robnett & Leaper, 2013). Our items were also informed by qualitative scholarship focusing on the #tradwife movement. For example, several items captured the emphasis that Sykes and Hopner (2024) place on tradwives being social media influencers, which is an element of the tradwife lifestyle that sets it apart from the longstanding homemaker lifestyle.

The 23 items on the scale measured multiple components of men's reasoning about the #tradwife movement and lifestyle. The current research focused on a subset of 12 items that address the current study's overarching objective of understanding men's attitudes about the #tradwife movement (e.g., “I think the #tradwife movement has a lot of good elements.”) and tradwives (e.g., “Tradwives are probably happier and more fulfilled than other women.”). The items that were not considered in the current research focus on other factors such as men's personal preferences surrounding the #tradwife lifestyle. Participants responded to each item on a six-point scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). Responses to these items were averaged to create a composite such that higher scores indicated higher levels of favorability toward tradwives and the #tradwife movement. An exploratory factor analysis with direct oblimin rotation indicated that the items loaded onto a single factor. Table 1 presents a list of all items alongside their factor loadings. Internal reliability for this scale was very high (α = .96).

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Table 1.

Exploratory Factor Analysis of Items on the Tradwife Favorability Scale.

Item	Loading
1. It would be good if more women in society adopted the tradwife lifestyle.	.87
2. Women who adopt the tradwife lifestyle are moving society in the right direction.	.86
3. My impression of the #tradwife movement is generally positive.	.86
4. I think the #tradwife movement has a lot of good elements.	.86
5. Tradwives are probably happier and more fulfilled compared to other women.	.85
6. It is good that lots of people are exposed to #tradwife content on social media.	.84
7. It is good that tradwives promote their lifestyle on social media so that other women can learn from them.	.82
8. I think the positive features of the #tradwife movement outweigh any negatives.	.81
9. Tradwives seem like they are more committed to having a successful marriage than other women are.	.81
10. Compared to other women, tradwives seem to care more about the wellbeing of their children.	.79
11. Most tradwives are probably warm and kind.	.79
12. Most tradwives are probably skilled and competent.	.68

Sociodemographic Background and Religiosity

On the final page of the survey, participants completed a set of questions about their age, education level, political affiliation, relationship status, and religious background. In addition to the categorical question about religious affiliation, we also measured the strength of participants’ religiosity with a scale developed by Huber and Huber (2012). The scale included four items, which we modified in minor ways to ensure that they were appropriate for participants from a range of religious backgrounds. A sample item is “How often do you participate in events with people who share your religious faith?” Participants responded to each item on a 5-point scale (1 = never; 5 = very often), and their responses were averaged to create a composite such that higher scores correspond to higher religiosity. Internal reliability for this scale was good (α = .87).

Familiarity with the #Tradwife Movement

We used chi-square analyses to test our predictions about sociodemographic variation in participants’ familiarity with the #tradwife movement. Overall, 31% of the sample was familiar with the movement at the outset of the current study ³ . As noted earlier, participants in the “Familiar” category indicated that they were familiar with the movement and provided an accurate definition of what it means to be a tradwife. Participants in the “Unfamiliar” category either indicated that they were not familiar with the movement or provided an inaccurate definition.

Findings revealed mixed support for Hypothesis 1. Consistent with Hypothesis 1a, White participants were more familiar with the movement than participants who identified as Black or Latiné, X²(2, N = 543) = 11.15, p = .004, Φ = .14. Inconsistent with Hypotheses 1b, however, participants who identified as Christian were less familiar with the movement relative to participants from other religious affiliations, X²(1, N = 595) = 16.65, p < .001, Φ = .17. Exploratory follow-up analyses indicated that this pattern was driven by agnostic and, to a lesser extent, atheist participants being higher in familiarity compared to Christian participants. Further, inconsistent with Hypothesis 1c, participants who identified as Republican were less familiar with the movement relative to participants from other backgrounds, X²(1, N = 595) = 17.61, p < .001, Φ = .17. Exploratory follow-up analyses did not provide additional insight into this pattern.

We also asked participants who were familiar with the #tradwife movement where they first learned about it. We report those findings here for descriptive purposes. Most participants noted that they learned about the #tradwife movement on social media (51%); other sources of information included traditional media/online (29%); peers or family (10%); and podcasts (3%). Thirteen percent of participants reported that they were unsure about where they had learned about the movement.

Attitudes About Tradwives and the #Tradwife Movement

Table 2 presents bivariate correlations among the continuous variables that were included in the regression model. Of note, hostile sexism, the three facets of benevolent sexism, and religiosity all had statistically significant positive associations with the tradwife favorability scale. Hypothesis 2 predicted that men's protective paternalism would be associated with their attitudes about tradwives and the #tradwife movement after controlling for a range of theoretically relevant constructs. We tested this hypothesis with hierarchical regression. The first step of the regression included the following demographic background variables: age, education, marital status, Republican political affiliation, and race. Three dummy-coded racial categories were included in the model to explore effects for participants who identified as Black, Latiné/o, and White relative to the rest of the sample. Step 2 included a categorical measure of Christian religious affiliation and the continuous measure of religiosity. Step 3 included hostile sexism. Step 4 included the three facets of benevolent sexism: protective paternalism, complementary gender differentiation, and heterosexual intimacy. Step 5 included the exploratory two-way interactions between racial background and the three facets of benevolent sexism. All continuous variables in the model were mean-centered to improve interpretability and reduce multicollinearity. Multicollinearity diagnostics indicated that all values for tolerance and the variable inflation factor (VIF) fell within well established limits (namely, > .2 for tolerance and < 5 for VIF; see Fox, 1991) through Step 4; however, as is often the case, the addition of the interaction terms in Step 5 introduced some multicollinearity with the VIFs exceeding 10 for the main effects associated with the three facets of benevolent sexism. For this reason, and because the analyses focusing on racial moderation were exploratory, we centered our interpretation on Step 4 in the model.

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Table 2.

Bivariate Correlations Among Continuous Variables.

	1.	2.	3.	4.	5.	6.	7.
1. Tradwife Favorability	–
2. Age	.07	–
3. Religiosity	.29**	.03	–
4. Hostile Sexism	.50***	.09*	.17**	–
5. Protective Paternalism	.35**	.07	.22**	.43**	–
6. Comp. Gender Differentiation	.26**	.04	.15**	.31**	.54**	–
7. Heterosexual Intimacy	.44**	.09*	.18**	.53**	.62**	.49**	–

Note. Comp. Gender Differentiation = Complementary Gender Differentiation

* p < .05 ** p < .001

As seen in Table 3, findings revealed that the model was statistically significant at each of the five steps. Further, each step constituted a statistically significant increase in the amount of variance explained. In the final step of the model, the predictors together accounted for 36% of the variance in men's tradwife attitudes. The three facets of benevolent sexism were entered into the model at Step 4. Although this step significantly added to the amount of variance explained in men's tradwife attitudes, the specific pattern of effects was inconsistent with our expectations. Of the three facets of benevolent sexism, heterosexual intimacy was the only statistically significant predictor of men's tradwife attitudes (β = .18, p < .001). Thus, Hypothesis 2 was not supported. In addition to heterosexual intimacy, several other variables had statistically significant associations with men's tradwife attitudes. Specifically, men who were higher in educational attainment (β = .09, p = .02), married (β = .08, p = .03), more religious (β = .19, p < .001), and higher in hostile sexism (β = .35, p < .001) held more favorable tradwife attitudes relative to other participants.

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Table 3.

Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Factors Predicting Men's Tradwife Favorability.

	Step 1, β	Step 2, β	Step 3, β	Step 4, β
Step 1: Sociodemographic Variables
Age	.03	.03	−.01	−.02
Marital Status	.07	.07	.10*	.08*
Political Affiliation: Republican	.14**	.09*	.03	.04
Educational Attainment	.14**	.10*	.08*	.09*
Race: Black	−.01	−.05	−.07	−.06
Race: Latiné	−.01	.02	−.00	.01
Race: White	−.13	−.10	−.09	−.07
Step 2: Religion
Religious Affiliation: Christian		−.04	−.01	−.03
Religiosity		.28***	.21***	.19***
Step 3: Hostile Sexism
Hostile Sexism			.46***	.35***
Step 4: Facets of Benevolent Sexism
Protective Paternalism				.06
Complementary GD				−.02
Heterosexual Intimacy				.18***
F model	4.86***	8.69***	27.60***	24.15***
R 2 Change	.06	.06	.20	.03
F Change	4.86***	20.94***	174.61***	8.91***

Note. All continuous predictor variables were centered. Dummy-coded variables include marital status (1 = married, 0 = unmarried), political affiliation (1 = Republican, 0 = other), educational attainment (1 = 4-year degree or higher, 0 = 2-year degree or lower), race (1 = member of group, 0 = not a member of group), and religious affiliation (1 = Christian, 0 = other).

* p < .05 ** p < .01 *** p < .001

In addition, Step 5 revealed two 2-way interactions involving race that qualify the findings obtained in Step 4 of the model (see Online Supplement, Table 1). Importantly, although the tests of these interactions were preregistered, they were exploratory and thus should be interpreted with caution. First, the main effect of heterosexual intimacy in Step 4 was qualified by an interaction between race (Black vs. other racial groups) and heterosexual intimacy that trended toward statistical significance (β = −.17, p = .05). A simple effects analysis demonstrated that heterosexual intimacy was not a significant predictor of tradwife attitudes among Black participants (β = −.09, p = .31), but it was among participants of other racial backgrounds (β = .30, p < .001). Second, there was a statistically significant 2-way interaction between race (Black vs. other racial groups) and complementary gender differentiation (β = .20, p = .02). A simple effects analysis demonstrated that complementary gender differentiation was a significant predictor of tradwife attitudes among Black participants (β = .17, p = .01). It was also a significant predictor of tradwife attitudes among participants of other racial backgrounds, but in the reverse direction (β = −.13, p = .02). This counterintuitive directionality is likely a statistical artifact given that the corresponding bivariate association is positive. Accordingly, we do not interpret it further.

Men's Meaning-Making About the #Tradwife Movement's Appeal

The next set of findings addressed Research Question 2. Specifically, we used thematic analysis to explore why men think the tradwife lifestyle is appealing to some women and couples. Our analysis yielded five themes, which are listed in order of frequency in the sample: (1) Fulfillment Through Tradition (f = 203), (2) Ease of Separate Roles (f = 64), (3) Laziness (f = 49), (4) Power Dynamics (f = 25), and (5) Trendy (f = 14). These themes were not mutually exclusive. That is, if a participant's response included sentiments that pertained to multiple themes, each of these sentiments was coded as an example of the corresponding theme. In practice, however, participants’ responses were often fairly short (1-2 sentences) and thus rarely included sentiments that were indicative of more than one theme. Overall, 60 percent of participants provided responses that could be coded; the remaining 40 percent either did not respond or provided responses that were irrelevant (“Because it's sometimes worse.”) or incomplete (e.g., “It just fits them better.”). We conducted exploratory analyses to examine whether the participants who provided useable data systematically differed from those who did not across the quantitative variables examined in the current research. Generally, the findings did not show differences across the two groups with one exception: Participants who identified as Christian were overrepresented in the group of participants who provided useable data, X²(1, N = 595) = 4.19, p = .04, Φ = .08. Findings should be interpreted with this in mind. Below, we describe each theme alongside illustrative examples of participant quotes exemplifying the theme.

Men's Familiarity with the #Tradwife Movement

Roughly one-third of men were familiar with the #tradwife movement at the outset of the study. Of these men, most noted that they had first learned about the movement on social media. As expected, White participants were more familiar with the movement than were Black and Latiné participants. This finding complements research illustrating that many tradwives are White and that there are threads of racism and white ⁴ nationalism in rhetoric surrounding the tradwife movement (Bower, 2024; Mattheis, 2019; Sykes & Hopner, 2024). For example, Bower (2024) proposed that when tradwife influencers encourage women to adopt a “feminine” appearance, they are implicitly referring to a specific brand of White femininity that excludes Women of Color and women from other marginalized backgrounds.

Inconsistent with expectations, participants who identified as Republican or Christian were less familiar with the #tradwife movement relative to other participants. It is unsurprising that the pattern of findings was similar for Christian and Republican men given the high degree of overlap between these groups (e.g., Patrikios, 2008); however, their low familiarity with the #tradwife movement relative to their counterparts from other backgrounds was initially puzzling given that Christian and conservative ideals play an important role in #tradwife content (e.g., Stotzer & Nelson, 2025). Indeed, uses and gratification theory (Rubin, 1993) suggests that men from Christian and conservative backgrounds should be drawn to #tradwife content because it reflects values that they ostensibly perceive as important. One explanation for this counterintuitive pattern resides in the algorithm-driven nature of social media. Specifically, the #tradwife movement has been described as a facet of the “femosphere,” which is a heterogeneous group of online communities that share in their focus on engaging audiences of women (Kay, 2025; Stotzer & Nelson, 2025). In general, then, men's algorithms might not provide them with much exposure to #tradwife content. We suspect that some men gain indirect exposure to the #tradwife movement because they consume media that critiques the movement (e.g., Morales, 2024). Thus, men who do not identify as Christian or conservative may have elevated levels of familiarity with the #tradwife movement precisely because they are not the target audience of the movement.

Heterosexual Intimacy and Hostile Sexism: Key Predictors of Men's Tradwife Favorability

Inconsistent with expectations, our findings illustrated that heterosexual intimacy and hostile sexism were the only components of ambivalent sexism that were statistically associated with men's tradwife favorability after taking into account variance explained by the other constructs in our regression model. Of note, the association involving hostile sexism was the largest in magnitude of all the predictive associations we considered. As discussed below, this pattern was surprising in its departure from portrayals of the tradwife lifestyle on social media and has several concerning implications.

Despite not being what we expected, the link between men's endorsement of heterosexual intimacy and their tradwife favorability is intriguing in that it illuminates a potential relationship-centric reason for men's attraction to the #tradwife movement. Specifically, heterosexual intimacy is the facet of benevolent sexism that emphasizes women's capacity to “fulfill” and “complete” men within romantic and sexual relationships (Glick & Fiske, 1996; see also Alba et al., 2024; Oswald et al., 2019). For example, Oswald et al. (2019) proposed that when a man is high in heterosexual intimacy, his romantic partner may simultaneously feel cherished and obligated to fulfill his intimacy needs. In this regard, heterosexual intimacy aligns closely with the emphasis the tradwife lifestyle places on women “spoiling” their husbands by providing them with devotion and care in the home (e.g., Stotzer & Nelson, 2025). The qualitative responses in the fulfillment through tradition theme provided deeper insight into the link between heterosexual intimacy and the tradwife lifestyle by implying that women's caretaking role was justified by essentialist rhetoric about a “natural order” of gender roles.

Our findings pertaining to hostile sexism suggest that the link between men's heterosexual intimacy and their tradwife favorability has a darker side. Echoing Glick and Fiske's (1996) argument that hostile sexism and benevolent sexism stem from the same source, men who believe they require women for romantic fulfillment (heterosexual intimacy) commonly resent women because of the dependence that this perceived requirement entails (hostile sexism). Our findings provide an applied example of the tensions generated by these attitudes: Men who were high in hostile sexism, and thus most insecure about depending on women, were also in favor of the tradwife dynamic in which men are reliant on a partner whose role is dedicated to domestic labor and emotional support. These results align with similar patterns in relationship science. Meta-analytic evidence illustrates a positive association between men's attachment anxiety in romantic relationships and their endorsement of both benevolent sexism and hostile sexism (Fisher & Hammond, 2019), suggesting that men's insecure needs for a loving partner align with attitudes that derogate the women who are sought to fulfill this role. Further, people who are high in hostile sexism tend to believe that women use sex as a manipulation strategy and that women attempt to exert high levels of control over men once they are in a committed relationship (Glick & Fiske, 1996; see also Bareket & Fiske, 2023; Barreto & Doyle, 2023; Hammond et al., 2020). As illustrated by qualitative findings in the laziness theme, participants’ concepts of heteronormative interdependence are intertwined with resentful attitudes toward women.

Sociodemographic Variation in Men's Tradwife Attitudes

In addition to gender attitudes, several sociodemographic variables were associated with men's tradwife attitudes. First, higher levels of religiosity were associated with more favorable tradwife attitudes. Although many tradwives identify as Christian (e.g., Sykes & Hopner, 2024), our findings suggest that it is not religious affiliation per se that explains men's tradwife attitudes, but rather the centrality of religion in men's daily lives. Second, being married and higher in educational attainment were also associated with more favorable tradwife attitudes. Regarding the former, it is possible that men who are married are particularly likely to perceive the tradwife lifestyle as a way to simplify life via clear-cut roles. This sentiment was apparent in the qualitative theme ease of separate roles and has been discussed in previous research (see Bareket & Fiske, 2023; Hammond et al., 2020; Overall & Hammond, 2018). The positive association between educational attainment and tradwife favorability was more puzzling given that previous research has linked higher levels of education to more flexible gender-role attitudes (see Bareket & Fiske, 2023); however, the finding makes sense to the extent that educational attainment is a proxy for men's income. Specifically, men with higher educational attainment (and thus a higher income) may be more likely than other men to perceive a single-earner household as a viable option.

We also explored whether racial background moderated the associations between the three facets of benevolent sexism and men's tradwife attitudes. Findings suggested that two facets of benevolent sexism operated differently for Black participants compared to participants from other racial backgrounds (for a parallel finding, see Davis et al., 2022). Specifically, we did not find evidence that heterosexual intimacy was statistically associated with Black men's tradwife attitudes (whereas it was in the rest of the sample); instead, complementary gender differentiation emerged as a key predictor for Black men. Complementary gender differentiation reflects the belief that women and men hold distinct sets of complementary traits the predispose them to different roles (Glick & Fiske, 1996). In a review focusing on links between Black men's gender-role socialization and their romantic relationships, Wallace (2007) noted that masculinity norms and gender-role expectations tend to be more strongly emphasized in the socialization of Black versus White boys. Similarly, Hill (2002) found that a subset of Black parents perceived it as highly important to teach Black boys about masculinity. This was in part because they perceived gender socialization as having an impact on boys’ (but ostensibly not girls’) sexual orientation. It is possible that these patterns of gender role socialization help to explain why complementary gender differentiation was a stronger predictor of tradwife favorability among Black men compared to men from other racial backgrounds. More generally, findings from the current research add to a small body of research indicating that researchers should be wary of assuming that gender attitudes and gender-role norms operate in the same way across participants of different racial backgrounds (see Davis et al., 2022; Hayes & Swim, 2013; Natarajan et al., 2022; Robnett et al., 2012).

Implications for Practice

Findings from the current research have several possible implications for practice. Importantly, the implications we outline should be substantiated by empirical research before they are acted upon in applied contexts. First, hostile sexism is associated with men's insecurity about being exploited, manipulated, or abandoned by their romantic partners (Glick & Fiske, 1996). To the extent that men bring these sentiments into tradwife relationships, they may feel justified in responding with anger or derisiveness if women step outside of their prescribed role. Support for this possibility comes from research demonstrating that hostile sexism is a major risk factor for intimate partner aggression and tolerance of aggression directed toward women (Agadullina et al., 2022; Bareket & Fiske, 2023; Betz et al., 2023; Sengupta et al., 2024). This is concerning given that some women who identify as tradwives downplay the prevalence and severity of intimate partner violence (Stotzer & Nelson, 2025). Together, these findings indicate that the tradwife lifestyle puts women in a vulnerable position that may be difficult to recognize in the curated #tradwife content that appears online. At a general level, this underscores the importance of promoting social media literacy among young people via evidence-based interventions that can be implemented in homes or classrooms (e.g., Cho et al., 2022). At a more granular level, our findings suggest that it may be worthwhile to present women in tradwife communities with clear information about how to access mental health support and social services if they do find themselves in a dangerous situation.

Our second implication pertains to men. The #tradwife movement is a manifestation of patriarchal social structures that afford status and power to men. This is particularly the case for men who hold other privileged identities such as being White or able-bodied. This status and power come with a tradeoff such that men are confined to narrow and unyielding gender roles (Bareket & Fiske, 2025; Toplu-Demirtaş et al., 2025; Vandello et al., 2008; Vandello & Bosson, 2013; Vierra et al., 2023). In the case of the tradwife lifestyle, men are expected to be the sole financial provider for the family, which has become increasingly challenging due to largescale economic shifts (Pew Research Center, 2023). Failing to comply with this gender-role expectation can lead men to experience role strain, backlash, and lower wellbeing (see Bareket & Fiske, 2025). Thus, complementing the aforementioned recommendations for women, we propose that men in tradwife marriages should receive targeted mental health outreach. We recognize that some men perceive a disconnect between seeking mental health support and masculinity norms (e.g., Mahalik et al., 2003). One potential workaround is to discuss the difficulties of being the sole breadwinner with men during premarital counseling if the couple aspires to have a marriage with traditional roles. Our goal in raising these points is not to equate the challenges that women and men encounter in tradwife marriages, but rather to illustrate how situations that afford men with status and power can come with downsides for men's psychological wellbeing.

Limitations and Future Directions

Findings from this study should be viewed in light of several limitations. Our first set of limitations pertains to features of the sample. It is possible that our findings would have differed if we had focused on men who are actually in tradwife marriages as opposed to the more general sample of men we considered. In addition, the current research focused on men who ranged in age from 18 to 29. We perceive men in this age range to be of central interest in efforts to understand the appeal of the #tradwife movement; however, our age-restricted sample also comes with downsides. In particular, the limited age range in the sample precluded any analysis of generational differences in men's attitudes about marriages defined by traditional gender roles. In addition to comparing the prevalence of these attitudes across men from different generations, future research should examine whether the correlates and reasoning behind men's attitudes show generational differences. We expect that ideological correlates such as ambivalent sexism, religion, and political affiliation would be relatively consistent across men of different generations, but that meaningful generational differences may emerge in open-ended rationales that men provide for their attitudes.

Our research design also has several limitations related to measurement. The scale we developed to measure men's tradwife attitudes was preliminary, which was necessary given that we were measuring attitudes toward a relatively new online movement. Although this initial measure formed a single reliable factor, further psychometric evaluation is required. This includes confirmatory factor analysis and corresponding tests of measurement invariance across genders, sexual identities, and racial identities. Another measurement limitation resides in how we measured race. Specifically, we asked participants to “check a box” to indicate their racial identity. Although this strategy is consistent with how race has been measured in similar studies, a deeper investigation requires a wider range of measures to assess racial identity (e.g., Davis et al., 2022; Stephenson, 2000). Future research should also endeavor to measure cultural values such as caballerismo (see Arciniega et al., 2008) that share conceptual overlap with benevolent sexism (see Leaper, 2024). Altogether, ambivalent sexism theory is a framework suited to exploring the intersection of sexist attitudes and cultural gender values, including novel gendered attitudes that emerge in online spaces.