A cottage industry of women are selling courses aligned with a conservative movement that claims feminism is the source of women’s discontent
Athirtysomething woman with the easy smile of your favorite neighbor sits in her earth-tone living room, natural light washing over a gray couch so long it could easily fit four children. The woman speaks of a friend, a married mother, who was frustrated that she had to constantly remind her germophile husband to wash his hands. Hearing this, the woman cautioned her friend: “I think it would be better for your entire family to get the black plague and die … than for you to continue treating your husband like a toddler by reminding him to wash his hands.”
Welcome to Wife School, a video masterclass led by Tilly Dillehay, a 38-year-old Baptist writer, podcaster and pastor’s wife who teaches women how to “become the kind of woman who inspires a godly leader”. That means molding them into the wives she says that husbands want: smiling, attentive and submissive, women who know not to nag – even if it means risking the bubonic plague.
Wife School is part of a cottage industry of affable Christian women selling online courses to their compatriots promising connubial joy, with a generous helping of Bible passages and anecdotes from their own enviable relationships. The proof of concept is their domestic bliss, they say: Dillehay has a satisfied husband, picture-perfect family and a living room that looks straight out of Pottery Barn catalogue.
