The conservative movement is facing a serious disconnect with suburban women, and it's time we address it head-on. The popularization of "trad wife" messaging—an aesthetic and lifestyle heavily promoted by early-20s influencers pushing sourdough bread, stay-at-home motherhood, and hyper-traditional femininity—is short-sighted, reductive, and frankly, unsustainable for the average American woman.

Let’s get real: most families can't afford for one parent to stay home full-time without a second income. And even when they can, what happens when the kids are in school full-time and the mother—who has likely put her career on pause—is yearning to reenter the workforce? The current narrative from the right doesn’t have an answer for that. It idolizes a moment in a woman’s life, but not the full arc. And if we continue pushing an unrealistic and outdated archetype, we will lose an entire generation of conservative-leaning women in the process.

I know because I am one of those women. I had both of my kids in my mid-twenties. I stayed home with them for six years—without help, without a nanny—and during that time I also ran three businesses. Now, in my thirties, my children are in school and I am thriving in my career. I didn't walk away from my ambitions, I reshaped them. I didn’t choose between family and work—I chose both, and so do millions of women like me.

The Republican party has abysmal statistics when it comes to suburban women voters. We cannot afford to keep ignoring the problem. We need to get uncomfortable having this conversation. Trad wife culture might be cute on TikTok, but it is not a strategy for long-term conservative success with women. It’s fantasy content that applies to a group of women but we need messaging grounded in reality.

Conservatism will cease to exist for women if we don’t start putting strong, capable women at the helm of the conversation. Think Megyn Kelly. Think Lara Trump. Think Karoline Leavitt. Think the millions of women who are building families and businesses, who care deeply about their children’s futures and also want a seat at the table. We must start building a future-forward message that resonates with women navigating real life in 2025.

Suburban women are not a monolith—but they are critical. We must start speaking their language, sharing their stories, and empowering them with policies and messaging that reflect their actual lives.

Trad wife aesthetics won’t win elections. Real talk might.