Alena Pettitt: A Voice for Traditional Housewives

In a world where homemaking is often looked down upon, Pettitt speaks out: “It’s OK to want to be a good wife. It’s OK to want to make your husband happy.”

Based in the Cotswolds, U.K., Pettitt encourages women to be better homemakers, inspiring them through advice on housekeeping, marriage and family, and traditions. Courtesy of thedarlingacademy/Instagram

The danger posed by a marmalade-making, vacuum-wielding housewife apparently can’t be overstated—at least that’s the impression you might get if you were to scan headlines in U.K. media in the past couple of months.

When the BBC interviewed Alena Pettitt, a 34-year-old housewife from Gloucestershire, England, about what being a traditional wife means to her, the headline read “#TradWife: ‘Submitting to My Husband Like It’s 1959.'”