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Cali lives a proud ‘traditional life’. But a former tradition says that the lifestyle has left her ‘dead inside’
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Cali lives a proud ‘traditional life’. But a former tradition says that the lifestyle has left her ‘dead inside’

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View the last episode of Dateline, The Cult of Tradewives: Part One at 9.30 pm Aest, Tuesday 16 September 2025, on SBS or SBS on request.
An hour south of the bright lights of Nashville, Tennessee, the 20-year-old influencer Cali prepares her next meal. It is also her next social media post.
In her picturesque rural kitchen she screws the lid of a pot of raw beef liver, shows a piece on the camera, picks it up and swallows it very much.
“I am fertility-maxxing,” she tells Dateline and the camera for her.
‘Fertility-Maxxing’ is a trend on social media in which young women consume things such as raw meat and raw milk in the conviction that it will increase their fertility, although this is not proven by science and can in fact be substantial health risks.
Cali hopes that it will prepare her body to wear children.
“I want 10-15 children one day, God wants it.”

Her days are focused on fertility, faith and agriculture. This Trifecta is the core of her “training” to become something called a “Tradwife”, shortly for “traditional woman.”

For Cali, a traditional trade also means to embrace more traditional female chores, such as “gathering eggs, milking the cow, cooking, buttering, making ice cream …”
“I would not see myself chopping wood or building houses or something,” says Cali. “I think that seems more [an] Advanced job. “
She believes that this definition of gender roles is important in a time when women “do everything”.
“I think that is a bit toxic,” she tells Dateline.

Instead, Cali believes: “All women should be, like … in the kitchen,” she said laughing.

Woman Supremation? Trade Living and his potential links to Alt-Right Content

The ‘Tradewife’ movement is filled with women such as Cali, who have rejected a career for coming back to the kitchen and, crucial, posts online. They share scenes of pets, homesteading and home schooling, which often put on 1800 dresses and preach gender roles from the 1950s.
Cali describes the lifestyle of Tradewives as a “mother staying at home who embraces, biblical femininity, things like that”.
However, there is one thing that separates Cali from many other makers of traditions: she is single.
Nevertheless, Cali regards itself as an aspiring tradition and its content contains many of the characteristics of traditional traditional content.

Accounts such as Calis are emblematic for what the traditional movement is: an uprising against the modern world and returning to traditional life. But for critics of the wider trend of traditional content, the Paisley dresses and pastoral scenes are in some cases a pipeline for alt-right content.

They warn that the message of Tradwives is regressive and anti-feminist, and following that algorithm leads you to a world of submission and extreme content. An increasing number of accounts also promotes outright misogynia, in addition to racist content.

The Tradwife movement is also closely linked to conservative Christianity and many Tradwives – including Cali – consider this lifestyle organized as Bibles. According to Cali, women were “made to be mothers and women” by God.

Cali regards part of the lifestyle of Trade Wife as the practicing of ‘biblical femininity’. Credit: SBS Dateline

Online the trend ‘Tradewife’ received a considerable grip for the first time that Donald Trump was chosen for the first time in 2016 in the US President.

Some social media influencers related to the Tradwife movement have an audience in the millions.

The influence of Tradewives

On Tiktok there are more than 60,000 posts haashtagged Tradwife, while there are more than 113,000 messages on Instagram. Other popular hashtags in the movement are ‘Tradewifeining’ and ‘Tradwifelife’.
Tradwife content is partly so successful because it “sells this escapist fantasy” according to Ruby Alexander, who has published a Masters of Philosophy thesis on the parallel movements of traditions and birth makers, women who refuse to have children in response to climate change. She spoke with the feed around the Tradwife phenomenon in 2024.

“The reality of it is that it is financially inaccessible for the majority of women because it is not really possible for a family or a few, or even an individual, to survive on one salary in the costs of living crisis,” she said.

She said that traditional content in the 1950s in the 1950s has nostalgia countries as a “[perceived] Perfect era “When women are assumed that they have had more time to spend with children, and not expected to work, but adds” that is a disputed history “.
“The housewife from the 1950s was only accessible to white women from the higher and middle class.”
For Cali, the movement is about reviving conservative values ​​that she believes they help to keep the family unit together. She says that her parents’ divorce has a significant effect on her desire to become a tradition.
“I was not really raised with a mother, as if she were always around, but just always worked as a nurse,” she said.
“I just knew that this is not how I will do it at a young age.”
Traditional life has given Calli hope that the marriage can last.

But for some women who tried traditional life, reality tore their families apart.

Traditional life

Enitza Templeton, 41, lived for 10 years as a tradition.
“My whole life was devoted to perfecting the craft of everything that was homely, cleaning, cooking, decorating … everything and everything was homely,” she told Dateline.

She is in her house in Denver and looks at photos of her wedding day and reminds of the more than 10 years that she has spent in a traditional marriage that she says she almost destroyed her.

A woman looks through photos in a box. Behind her is a flower armchair.

Enitza says that her role as a tradition was as a tradition “to have as many babies as possible”. Credit: SBS Dateline

Enitza, born from Puerto Rican parents, was raised as an evangelical Christian. She says that since his childhood she had been inserted into her that a man should have total authority about his wife.

“I remember that I would have conversations with my father if:” Oh, I think a lawyer would be really cool, “said Enitza. “And his exact reaction was:” No, that’s the task of a man. “
Instead, Enitza went to a small lecture for graphic design and got a job in an executive suite, where she says she was watching a man to get married.

“Everything was secondary to just look for a husband,” she said.

After moving to Colorado, Enitza married a colleague believer and started her new life as a tradition.
She started learning the house of her then mother -in -law, dressing conservatively and fully devoting herself to household tasks. But over time her self -feeling started to beat.
“The curtains were perfect, and we had a fireplace … And I was very dead inside,” she said.
“Knowing that I have done all that so active and willingly, it eats me inside.”

While her husband managed their finances and made all the decisions in the house, Enitza said it was her job “to have as many babies as possible”. After having had four children, including one with complex health problems, she fell into a deep depression.

With the help of a good friend, Enitza made the decision to leave her marriage in 2019.
“I wanted to be the mother I dreamed of instead of the woman he wanted,” she said.
“If I want my daughters to do differently, I have to show them differently.”
It was around this time, when she started her new life, that Enitza saw the Tradwife trend perform on social media. Sharing custody about her children and trusting food vouchers to make ends meet, the growth moment of the movement has encouraged Enitza to create her own counter -contents.

She is now one of the most prominent voices against Tradwife in the United States.

The curtains were perfect, and we had a fireplace … and I was very dead inside

Enitza Templeton

Potential damage to content of tradition

According to Enitza, the core principle of the Trade Movement to men can expose women to compulsive control and abuse. She says that women like Cali are too young to know the true terror who waits for them.

“You don’t see Tradewives in forty,” she said.

A woman stands for a traffic sign that says 'proceeds'.

Enitza fears that the lifestyle of tradition can expose women to compulsive control. Credit: SBS Dateline

Enitza believes that young women are blinded by the national aesthetics of life and not understanding the real purpose of the movement.

“The goal is to create disciples that believe everything you believe, so that the girls can grow up and continue to serve and the men can grow up and continue to lead.”

More than just a way to promote traditional roles, Enitza notes that the religious doctrine of the traditional movement holds the rescue of women to their husband’s satisfaction.
“So all your performance, all your cooking, all your portion to your husband, if it’s not good enough, well, where will your eternal salvation be? That’s a cult.”
Today Enitza lives with her boyfriend, whom she says she will never get married. She says that she drives off the “traditional” standards for her in her marriage and tries to unravel the example that she suggested her children when they were younger.
“If it sounds too good to be true, it’s that.”

With additional reporting by Kathleen Farmilo.

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