Why are so many women suddenly drawn to homemaking, traditional marriage, femininity, sourdough bread, babies, and a life centered around the home?

And is the internet's version of the "tradwife" actually the same thing as the Catholic vision of womanhood?

In this Catholic Convo, I'm digging beneath the aesthetics and the culture-war talking points to ask a much more interesting question: what are women actually longing for?

I sat down with Dia Boyle, Catholic homemaker and author of The Thoughtful Home, to talk about homemaking, the human need for home, marriage, work, femininity, beauty, family life, and why so many women are searching for something that modern culture may have lost.

Because I don't think "feminism is bad" is an adequate answer.

But I also don't think putting on a floral dress, baking sourdough, rejecting feminism, and creating a beautiful Instagram feed automatically gives us the Christian answer.

Catholicism gives us something much deeper.

We talk about the dignity of homemaking without romanticizing the past, why the tradwife movement resonates with women, the difference between Christian submission and domination, the economic realities behind the stay-at-home ideal, and what happens when femininity and homemaking become online performances.

We also get into Ephesians 5, St. John Paul II, the feminine genius, Catholic social teaching on the family wage, the "mommy wars," Gloria Steinem and domestic labor, and why the Christian home ultimately isn't about looking traditional.

Dia makes a beautiful point in our conversation: animals don't have freedom, and angels don't have bodies, but human beings have both.

And that's why we need homes.

I'm a single Catholic woman without children, and this conversation also changed the way I think about homemaking itself. Homemaking isn't simply something married women with children do. At its deepest level, it's the human work of creating a place where persons can live, belong, be loved, and encounter one another.

So whether you're a Catholic homemaker, a working woman, a stay-at-home wife or mother, a single woman like me, someone intrigued by the tradwife movement, or someone trying to understand what all of this says about women, family, work, and faith, this conversation is for you.

The real question isn't whether your life looks traditional enough.

The question is whether the life you're building is forming you and the people you love in holiness.

📖 LEARN MORE ABOUT DIA BOYLE & THE THOUGHTFUL HOME

Visit Dia Boyle's website to learn more about her work and get in contact with her:
www.diaboyle.com

Get your copy of Dia's book, The Thoughtful Home, on Amazon:
https://amzn.to/4AA74ch

💬 And tell me below: Do you think our current economy actually gives families a genuine choice about whether one parent stays home?

🙏🏿 If you enjoy deeper Catholic conversations about faith, culture, theology, womanhood, and the questions Christians are actually wrestling with, subscribe to That Black Catholic Chick.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Why Are Women Looking Back?
02:45 My Conversation With Dia Boyle
05:09 Why Human Beings Need Homes
12:53 The Incomplete Story of Internet Femininity
17:07 Ephesians 5 & Christian Submission
20:24 When Homemaking Becomes a Performance
24:26 Feminism, History & the Tradwife Fantasy
27:10 Who Can Actually Afford to Stay Home?
29:49 What Is a Home?
32:35 Bethany, Nazareth & the Christian Home