Polina Pelipenko | News Editor
March 13, 2026
“Tradwives,” stay at home girlfriends, the “I’m just a girl” trend, every one of these ideas has been prepping and priming Gen Z for a regression in feminism in the past half decade. Marking women’s history rights this March, we also see social media starting to regress towards the traditional values that were seen in earlier times. Within a poll that was taken with Gen Z men, 31% of them believed that their wife should obey them and they should run the house, compared to only 13% percent of men believing the same thing in Millennials.
It’s expected to see political pendulums swing between more conservative and progressive ideas, but the idea of equal rights should be something that is solidified within the system of the world. Even worse, the pendulum doesn’t just seem to be swinging but rather being shoved towards the conservative right with every TikTok trend that has emerged within the past four years.
The most prominent figures that are shoving this movement down the throats of Gen Z women seem to be the influencers that hide behind the idea of being women who only follow traditional values, shading any female achievements under the sun and shining a light on how the greatest goals of women is building a successful home and raising a family. This is a direct shift from just the 2010’s where the terms “girl boss” and “girl power” were rampant.
Even smaller trends, like the trend of “I’m just a girl” that was started on TikTok where people try to get laughs at mistakes women have made, directly caused the idea that women are inferior and cannot make decisions for themselves. Sophomore Devan Lowery added that “[while] it’s just a trend it [does] cause people to shift their views.” This stands true as freshman Miles Johnston added, “Women are just as capable as anyone else and that shouldn’t be diminished.”
There is a correlation in these trends rising and women now seeing goals shift from becoming women in the working field and getting an education to their biggest goal being to be a stay at home mom and raising a household. Even in high school, there are murmurs of girls relinquishing their ideas of working or even getting a college education in the favor of becoming financially dependent on their husbands and raising families instead.
However, the current cultural chokehold that this regression of feminism has on society cannot erase the generations of women that fought for our rights. The tide will always shift and we cannot let it wash away our fight to live in a world of gender equality and true freedom for all.
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