The Return of the Housewife

An illuminating look at the world of cleanfluencers that asks why the burden of housework still falls on women. Housework is good for you. Housework sparks joy.

Housework is beautiful. Housework is glamorous. Housework is key to a happy family.

Housework shows that you care. Housework is women’s work. Social media is flooded with images of the perfect housewife.

TikTok and Instagram ‘cleanfluencers’ produce endless photos and videos of women cleaning, tidying and putting things right. Figures such as Marie Kondo and Mrs Hinch have placed housework, with its promise of a life of love and contentment, at the centre of self-care and positive thinking. And yet housework remains one of the world’s most unequal institutions.

Women, especially poorer women and women of colour, do most low-paid and unpaid domestic labour. In The return of the housewife, Emma Casey asks why these inequalities matter and why they persist after a century of dramatic advances in women’s rights. She offers a powerful call to challenge the prevailing myths around housework and the ‘naturally competent’ woman homemaker.