The idea that “women have always stayed home with the babies while men single-handedly funded everything” is pure brain-rot mythology. For most of history, women worked just as hard as men to sustain their families. The image of the 1950s housewife the wannabe trad Twitter obsesses over was an anomaly, mostly limited to a certain period and a specific class. If we look at history, the idea of women being strictly stay at home mothers is a relatively modern and class dependent phenomenon. So maybe let’s break it down by era and class structure: Pre- industrial societies (ancient times - 1700s) • In agrarian and hunter-gatherer societies, women worked alongside men to sustain the family. • Women farmed, ploughed fields, harvested crops, tended livestock, and participated in trade. • In hunter-gatherer societies, women gathered and often hunted small game—providing a substantial portion of the diet. • Domestic work (childcare, food preparation, textile production) was labour-intensive and essential for survival. Industrial revolution (1700s - 1800s) • The shift to industrial economies saw many working-class women and children forced into factory jobs, mines, and textile mills. • Middle- and upper-class women were more likely to stay at home, but even they often contributed through home-based industries (like sewing, managing family businesses). • In rural areas, women still worked the fields while managing household duties. 19th century - early 20th century (1800s - 1920s) • Working-class women continued to work, often as domestic servants, in textile factories, or in farming. • The Victorian “ideal” of the stay at home wife applied mostly to upper-class and emerging middle-class women. • In many societies, widows and poor women had no choice but to work, often in gruelling conditions. 1930s - 1950s: the “Tradwife” • The Great Depression forced many women into the workforce, as families needed dual incomes to survive. • After World War II, with men returning from war, there was a cultural push (especially in the West) to return women to the home. • The nuclear family ideal, a working dad, a stay at home mum, and children, was heavily promoted in media, but it was largely a middle-class phenomenon. 1960s - present: • Second-wave feminism pushed women in education and employment. • Economic conditions / necessities meant dual-income households became increasingly common. • Today, many women work full-time while still shouldering the majority of domestic labour; essentially doing both. Soooooo…… Belittling women for working while raising children isn't just ignorant-it's historically illiterate. The idea that women have always been delicate little house pets, shielded from labour while men toiled away, is a delusional fantasy cooked up by grifters. For most of human existence, women worked just as hard as men-ploughing fields, running businesses, handling trade, and keeping families alive through sheer force of will. The whole "tradwife" aesthetic doesn’t seem to be about tradition at all; it's a rebranded aristocratic fantasy, where they imagine themselves swanning around in linen dresses on sunlit estates. These wannabe tradwives are literally historically wrong, but that’s cute and okay, as long as you’re not insulting generations of women who had no choice but to work to keep their families alive. So don’t erase the labour of farmers' wives who worked the fields, factory women who kept industries running, and market women who ensured their children had food on the table. You sneer at working mothers today as if raising children while holding down a job is some kind of moral failing rather than the impossible balancing act it has always been. You’re rewriting history to suit your own delusions.