Daniel and Brianna Bell met as college students near Toronto. Brianna, especially, had embraced traditionalist messages about family from her conservative Christian church. So when they married, Daniel became a pastor and Brianna became a stay-at-home mom.

Brianna lived what was essentially a “tradwife” lifestyle — the trend popularized by online influencers in which women embrace conservative gender roles in their families. For her, that meant making her own laundry detergent, being gentle and meek, and prioritizing her husband, kids, and God over herself at every turn, she told me. For Daniel, the traditional life was a little more complicated.

On the one hand, “I felt like I never had to cook,” he told me. “I barely had to clean.”

On the other, he was faced with the task of providing

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