Western Feminism's Real Crisis Is Not Tradwives. It's Liberal Feminism Itself
By Nadège Bizimungu
A recent viral TikTok video by a 19-year-old woman named Ava has been viewed millions of times. “I’m a 19-year-old wife, married, no degree, no 9-to-5, and I am exactly where I want to be,” she tells her followers, before describing a life centred on her husband, her home and the family she hopes to build. The backlash was immediate. Most feminist critics online saw it as evidence that young women are increasingly embracing tradwife content and questioned why an almost teenage girl with no independent income could ever truly be secure or free. In response, some of Ava’s supporters accused feminists of looking down on women who do not necessarily see careers, professional success or climbing the corporate ladder as the highest form of liberation.
The panic surrounding tradwives has become so familiar that it is often treated as one of the most defining feminist questions of our time. Yet there is remarkably little evidence that large numbers of women are abandoning feminism for traditional gender roles. A 2025 King’s College London and Ipsos survey across 29 countries found that Gen Z men and women are more divided on feminism and women’s rights than any other generation surveyed: 53% of Gen Z women identified as feminists, compared with just 32% of Gen Z men. If anything, the findings suggest that one of the most significant political developments of recent years is not a mass rejection of feminism by young women but a growing ideological divide between young men and women.
