# A college for "tradwives" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 27, 2026, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829 "2026-03-27T23:06:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/21 "2026-03-28T15:01:32Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > > [@Jackmannii](#): > > > > it appears one could get at least exposed to a regular college curriculum in certain tracks, as in the “major” designed to produce teachers for Christian high schools which includes English lit., higher math, calculus, physics, chemistry and biology (but probably not mainstream evolutionary biology) > > If they’re hoping for their graduates to become high school teachers, won’t they need to have accreditation so the teacher-hopefuls can receive state licensure as teachers? The Christian high schools that presumably would be hiring them might not care about the lack of accreditation. Students taught by those teachers would be primed to attend a distinguished college like Hyles-Anderson. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/22 "2026-03-28T15:23:49Z")
> [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](#): > > Speaking from a Catholic perspective, yes the official decisions of the Church are all made by men in so far as the Pope, cardinals, bishops, etc. are all men, so I guess in that sense it is certainly “patriarchal”, but there is absolutely no modern teaching or doctrine that states or suggests women are in any way inferior to men or should subject themselves to them. I can’t believe you don’t see the inherent contradiction in your two statements here. Yes, men have all the power by decree but that doesn’t mean women are treated as inferior! Seriously. You need to hang out with some nuns. I once worked for some nuns. They will tell you all about the Catholic Church’s patriarchal bullshit. I think you can be a Christian man and not subscribe to those beliefs personally, but it’s 1000% baked into the doctrine and the kinds of men and women going to schools like this absolutely have internalized those traditional beliefs, or they wouldn’t be going to this school. As for rates of abuse, I think you’d have to isolate certain subsets of Christianity to get good data, because there are a ton of Christian churches that reject patriarchy. So in no way would I say Christians are any more likely to be abusive. I would say Christians who have internalized patriarchal teachings are more likely to be abusive to women. I mean that’s just common sense. If you believe women are inferior, you’ll treat them worse than you treat men. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/23 "2026-03-28T15:24:35Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > patriarchy is directly tied to the abuse of women Just about every society in the history of mankind has been a patriarchy, to the extent that a valid argument could be made that it’s cooked into our DNA, and will likely never change. To say it’s “abusive” to women is something I can’t get on board with. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/24 "2026-03-28T15:31:48Z")
Patriarchy is by definition a form of oppression. The less power someone has, the more likely they are to be abused. This is obvious, right? Look at children. Girls are slightly more likely to be sexually abused than boys, but not by much. That’s because girls and boys as children are both about equal in their lack of power. This is also why mothers are just about as physically abusive toward their children as fathers. Whenever someone has power over another person, they are more likely to abuse that person. This isn’t some special characteristic of men, it’s human nature. When you have a whole society in which one gender holds the majority of the power, the other gender is going to suffer. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/25 "2026-03-28T15:33:10Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Just about every society in the history of mankind has been a patriarchy, to the extent that a valid argument could be made that it’s cooked into our DNA, and will likely never change. To say it’s “abusive” to women is something I can’t get on board with.&nbs; How do you not see the glaring contradiction between your two sentences? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/26 "2026-03-28T15:34:57Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Just about every society in the history of mankind has been a patriarchy, to the extent that a valid argument could be made that it’s cooked into our DNA, and will likely never change. Well that’s not true because when women participate in political life their countries tend to have better outcomes for women. It can change and has, for the better. The idea that women should just suck it up because men ostensibly have an evolurionary instinct to oppress women is laughable. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/27 "2026-03-28T15:36:29Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > When you have a whole society in which one gender holds the majority of the power, the other gender is going to suffer. And the gender which holds the majority of the power is less likely to recognize the inherent potential for suffering - they (a portion, not all) just consider it the natural order of things. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/28 "2026-03-28T15:37:09Z")
I just wouldn’t have thought that would be a controversial statement. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/29 "2026-03-28T15:38:09Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I just wouldn’t have thought that would be a controversial statement Welcome to Hyles-Anderson College! ---
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/30 "2026-03-28T16:00:26Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I can’t believe you don’t see the inherent contradiction in your two statements here. There is no contradiction. The Church teaches that men and women have distinct roles to play within the Church, but neither as a group is elevated or inherently “better” than the other, and certainly not that women, as a group, should listen to men, simply by the fact of their sex. Yes, the _leadership structure_ of the Church is patriarchal in so far as it is men, but the position of the sexes and the Church’s teaching on how they relate to each other within the laity of the Church is definitely not. > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Seriously. You need to hang out with some nuns. I once worked for some nuns. They will tell you all about the Catholic Church’s patriarchal bullshit. My niece is a nun. In speaking with her, let’s just say your experience is not universal. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/31 "2026-03-28T16:08:11Z")
> [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](#): > > The Church teaches that men and women have distinct roles to play within the Church, but neither as a group is elevated or inherently “better” than the other, and certainly not that women, as a group, should listen to men, simply by the fact of their sex. I can tell you, as someone who was a member of a conservative Protestant college group for four years, and a member of a Fundamentalist church for four years: such denominations _ **very** _ strongly believe in the concept that “a wife shall submit to her husband in all things.” They certainly can and do also argue “but this doesn’t mean that women and men are unequal,” but in practice, it really does mean exactly that. They absolutely believe that men and women were created by God for very different purposes – and not just at church, but in every aspect of their lives. In practice, it means that the husband is _the_ decision-maker in the family (hypothetically, he should be consulting with his wife, but that often doesn’t happen much), and _the_ breadwinner; preferentially, the wife shouldn’t be working outside the home, and her focus should be on maintaining the household and rearing children (hence, the “tradwife” curriculum at the fundie university in this thread). ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/32 "2026-03-28T16:09:05Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > I’m still disappointed the class is called “home economics” when it was just cooking. Not always and everywhere. When I played Hysterium in my school’s production of _A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum_, it was the Home Ec class that fitted and tailored my Philia costume for the fake funeral. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > These women have been trained, as a tree or vine is trained, into a contorted shadow of a real human. Female _bonsai_. It’s child abuse, is what it is. > [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > That’s horrific. I’d be _ **very unhappy** _ with those scientist. Very very unhappy. I really wish my eyes didn’t work so that I hadn’t read that story. Don’t be so quick to judge. **kaylasmom** was blind from birth (Retinitis Of Prematurity), and the visual centers of her brain never developed, so even if an eye transplant (or something analagous) had ever become available, it wouldn’t have given her sight. The kitten experiments quite possibly established that. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/33 "2026-03-28T16:12:47Z")
The Church? Where does the Church begin? Who “created” the world? For “ **HE”** so loved it? Yeah I think it’s THE patriarch. God. Not convinced he’s anything but someone’s imaginary friend. As soon as we put aside the religiosity, especially this fake MAGA version. (I still see Trump holding that Bible upside down, screaming crap from his awful pie hole). As soon as we get out from under the arbitrary rules we’ll be a happier people. ---
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/34 "2026-03-28T16:37:39Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I can tell you, as someone who was a member of a conservative Protestant college group for four years, and a member of a Fundamentalist church for four years: such denominations _ **very** _ strongly believe in the concept that “a wife shall submit to her husband in all things.” sure I recognize that there are certain denominations of Christianity who either officially or unofficially espouse that, not to mention certain other religions like Islam. I was speaking from the Catholic perspective where the leadership structure is certainly patriarchal, but not with respect to its laity. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/35 "2026-03-28T17:15:25Z")
The Catholic church abuses its lay women just fine. It routinely treats women as mere vessels for child-bearing whose lives are subordinate to fetuses. It routinely allows women to die in order to fulfill what Catholics believe is women’s biological purpose: to procreate. There’s a reason my husband, who was raised Catholic, was vehemently opposed to me giving birth at a Catholic hospital. Because he knew my life would not be prioritized if anything went wrong. Anyway, I doubt many at this school are Catholic. It’s more evangelical in its culture. I have direct experience with evangelicals, having been one myself between approximately the ages of 11 and 17. The messaging that women should submit to men is very strong in this culture, and it is instilled in young girls at an early age. Women are not only to submit to men but held responsible for keeping men sexually pure. Fortunately for me I had a fairly egalitarian mother. She became a mechanical engineer in the 80s. You try to tell her there are certain things women shouldn’t do, oh boy. Thus I didn’t fully absorb the messaging I was exposed to in church and Christian media. I did at least partly. At one point I was obsessed with abstinence and sexual purity. But it never occurred to me to put a man ahead of my career. At that age it’s hard to know what “submit to your husband” even means because you aren’t married and have no reference point, so it’s easy to go along with a vague instruction to trust your husband to make the right decisions. The implicit assumption is that your husband will naturally make the best decisions. There was no room in that narrative for what happens if you happen to disagree with your husband about what the best decision is, or he turns out to be an abusive asshole. They also never really squared the circle about how you were supposed to keep men sexually pure if you also were supposed to submit to them. (We were also taught that wives owed their husbands sexual gratification pretty much whenever they pleased.) What definitely wasn’t discussed was the meaning of consent or why the things you wanted were less important than what your husband wanted. Just another way women have been told to suck it up and take responsibility for men’s actions since time immemorial. It’s indoctrination, plain and simple. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/36 "2026-03-28T17:20:49Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Anyway, I doubt many at this school are Catholic. It’s more evangelical in its culture. Agreed. Many Fundamentalist Protestant sects (and Hyles-Anderson is administered by an independent Fundamentalist Baptist church) believe that Catholics are not actually Christians; they refer to Catholics as “papists,” who put the word of the Pope ahead of the word of God (and also worship Mary). I’m pretty sure that even a conservative Catholic would not be welcome at Hyles-Anderson. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/37 "2026-03-28T17:21:56Z")
Yes, for a while I was Pentecostal (later Baptist) and I was taught that Catholics are not Christian. ---
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/38 "2026-03-28T20:03:35Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > what Catholics believe is women’s biological purpose: to procreate. you’re spewing a lot of incorrect statements, but this one is perhaps the silliest. I’m sorry your husband what disillusioned with the Catholic Church. I am not here to defend it, it is a human institution and suffers from human failings. But this statement is simply not correct. The Catholic Church does not believe a woman’s “biological purpose” is to procreate. It is encouraged, and the Church teaches a marriage should be open to the possibility of children, but nowhere is it mandated and nowhere is a childless woman considered less than one with children. Please stop with this. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/39 "2026-03-28T20:23:09Z")
Four year colleges provide a similar program. I don’t know how many women left with their MRS degree after only one year and never came back. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2026, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829/40 "2026-03-28T21:24:42Z")
> [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](#): > > There is no contradiction. The Church teaches that men and women have distinct roles to play within the Church, but neither as a group is elevated or inherently “better” than the other, and certainly not that women, as a group, should listen to men, simply by the fact of their sex I could name more than one Christian sect that actually _does_ hold that women should obey men simply by the fact of their sex. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, for example, holds motherhood up as the best role for women and that women should obey their husbands. This gets even more extreme in the Fundamentalist versions, like the Warren Jeffs groups. A number of “evangelical” groups also hold to things they call “Biblical marriage” with, again, the man as the undisputed head of the household. Some of these groups want to take the vote away from women. Not just their own women, ALL women. Restrict them to _just_ being wives and mothers and nothing else. Really sucks for women who can’t, for whatever reasons, have children. Or whose husband can’t have children but the wife will be blamed/seen as the fault and no option for divorce. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-college-for-tradwives/1028829.md?page=3)