‘Serve, smile, procreate’: Yesteryear author Caro Claire Burke on the rise of the tradwife

As her dark debut about a tradwife who wakes up in the past is made into a film by Anne Hathaway, the novelist explores the sinister truth behind the barefoot influencers Gingham dresses, linen aprons; toddlers smiling toothily out from their perch on a perfectly cocked hip. And the mothers holding these babies? They’re beautiful, obviously. They speak in a whisper. Their skin tone is varied in the exact range and spectrum of honey. Tradwife. It’s a frilly word, the kind that holds a gun to ...

By Caro Claire Burke