History Main / Housewife

%%[[folder:Webcomics]]

%%[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Originals]]
* Web animation ''Don't Feed The Humans'' is about an assortment of people abducted at various places and times to become exhibits in an alien zoo; June is the archetypical American housewife from The50s.

* ''Series/{{Hightown}}'': In Season 3 Ray says Renee is now one, as she's stuck at home caring for their baby and her son. She isn't happy with her situation.

* Saki from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild''. She stays at home to take care of her son Tulin while her husband [[ArcherArchetype Teba]] is out preparing to fight Vah Medoh. She's later seen doing some grocery shopping when the two of them go practice archery together at the Flight Range.

Usually the wife of the StandardFiftiesFather, and mother of the GirlNextDoor and TheAllAmericanBoy. In more modern stories, she may be the wife of the BumblingDad, who spends all her days not only taking care of the house and kids but ParentingTheHusband as well.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' initially suggests that Marie Danvers is the ExtremeDoormat version [[BadassFamily (unlike her family)]], being married to a [[StepfordSmiler variation]] on the StandardFiftiesFather with [[FantasyForbiddingFather certain]] [[StayInTheKitchen values]] that their [[ActionGirl daughter]], Carol, rebels against, and the second child, [[ShrinkingViolet Stevie]], suffers under (the youngest child, [[TheAllAmericanBoy Joe Junior]], is fine). However, this comes from [[UnreliableNarrator Carol]]. Marie has significant HiddenDepths - and they're more alike than she wants to admit. Short version: she became one, after a career as a nurse, because [[RefusalOfTheCall she wanted to "make good" rather than fight evil]] because of seeing what it did to people (her [[LadyOfWar mother's]] self-admitted ParentalNeglect didn't help). They reconciled, but fear driven by Carol's ActionGirl tendencies meant she started repeating her mother's mistakes. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone She realises this,]] apologises to Carol, explaining her past, and [[SoProudOfYou resolving to be proud of her]].

* A dark example in the FilmNoir ''Film/TheRecklessMoment'': In order to keep the facade of a perfect family, Lucia Harper covers up her daughter's AccidentalMurder, but things are complicated even more when she's blackmailed. This blackmail shows how powerless even a wealthy woman was during TheForties and TheFifties. It's painfully obvious that not only is her family [[UngratefulBastard ungrateful]], but that she's trapped in a role that she dislikes.

* Web animation ''Don't Feed The Humans'' is about an assortment of people abducted at various places and times to become exhibits in an alien zoo; June is the archetypical American housewife from TheFifties.

* Parodied with Jimmy's mother Judy on ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius''. She takes all the housewife tropes (baking, cleaning, manicuring the lawn) up to eleven, and this is even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] on at least one occasion ("To think I step out for two measly days and you replace me with some psycho robot with a hideous 1950s hairdo!"). It's also made crystal clear that she's where Jimmy gets his brains and that neither he nor Hugh (who himself looks like a StandardFiftiesFather but subverts this by being an imbecilic ManChild) can survive without her.

Compare YamatoNadeshiko (a Japanese cultural ideal where a woman runs the household with a gentle expertise and touch of iron), HouseHusband (when a man takes the role of homemaker, much to the utter surprise of pretty much everyone in popular media).

* [[Franchise/StarTrek Federation Law]] deliberately [[InvokedTrope Invokes]] this trope (crossed with HouseHusband) in ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/7845760/chapters/17913511 Jim Kirk, Unwilling Housewife Extraordinaire]]'', ensuring all romantic entanglements consist of 'one working unit and one homemaking unit' in the name of maximising physical and mental health. All Starfleet officers have to declare a marriage within five years of promotion, if you aren't married by that point then any current romantic entanglement will be formalised as a marriage, and if you're unattached you'll end up in an ArrangedMarriage. And if you happen to be the younger partner in your new marriage, then [[StayInTheKitchen tough luck]]. Given that captaincy is Kirk's first, best destiny and Spock just [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy wants his beloved to be happy]], it's not a great situation, and, given that the Federation is at war, forcing half the population out of work is acknowledged InUniverse as being an incredibly stupid decision. [[DeconstructedTrope It's also pointed out that the reason that Vulcan is far more advanced than Earth is because they actually let both halves of a relationship contribute to society in a meaningful way rather than enforcing an outdated regulation that very few people appear to support.]]

* Vanilla the Rabbit from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'', although her husband (if she has one) has never been seen. She lets her daughter Cream [[FreeRangeChildren accompany Sonic on his adventures]] with little issue.

** ''ComicStrip/{{Blondie}}'': She was an archetypical example, doing all the cooking and cleaning until she got her own catering business.

* Some Christian groups hold to the idea of the "[[Literature/BookOfProverbs Proverbs 31 woman]]" as the ideal wife, based on [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Proverbs 31]] from ''Literature/TheBible''. Far from being a doormat, this woman is strong, wise, industrious, respectable, and fully capable of managing the affairs of the household, and her husband (an important government official) boasts about her to his friends and colleagues.
** Also, unlike more traditional examples of this trope, she does not remain solely within the private sphere. She runs a textile business, teaches Torah, and purchases a vineyard. (Yet many people seem to forget that she is a businesswoman as well as a wife and mother.)

* Ethyne of ''Literature/TheGirlWhoDrankTheMoon'' is beautiful, charming, well-liked by local law enforcement (so she can defy orders of the Council), a creative crafter around the house, a skilled cook, a productive herbalist, and devoted to her husband Antain.

Naturally, this is ''far'' less common in newer (ie. 1990's onward) works than in older works. However, the archetype is still used often enough that it has not yet become a DiscreditedTrope. It is also, at least, TruthInTelevision if the woman decides to be a stay-at-home mom.

* Delia Ketchum of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' takes care of the household while her son is off adventuring and her husband is... [[DisappearedDad somewhere]] [[AmbiguouslyAbsentParent unknown.]] She always reminds him to change his underwear.

* Genderflipeed in ''Series/HannahMontana'' of all places where Robbie Ray does a fair share of the home-making duties.

* Zig-zagged in''Fanfic/NeitherABirdNorAPlaneItsDeku''. Inko stays home to take care of Izuku while her husband works overseas, but she's considering going back into fashion designing now that Izuku is a teenager and attending U.A.

* During ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'', the title character finally decided to [[RetiredBadass temporarily rest her wings]] [[HeroicRROD to recover from her injuries]] and has taken up this role to raise Vivio, with Fate as [[HasTwoMommies the working wife]] [[MarriedToTheJob who is usually away from home]]. Led to a scene where newcomer Einhart mistakes her for an ordinary housewife, causing much snickering from everyone else.

* Molly Weasley from ''Literature/HarryPotter'' is the homemaker of the family but she's also an ApronMatron. One would have to be badass to run a household with so many children and especially so when two of those children are TricksterTwins.

* [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The main cast]] of ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' (at least originally; later on most of them hold down full-time jobs leaving this as something of an ArtifactTitle).

** In the 1963 storyline of season 1, Beth Ann Stanton is the picture-perfect 1960s housewife in a bouncy hairdo, full skirts, pearls, and proper vocabulary. She cleans and maintains the Pasadena mansion [[HighSchoolSweethearts she and her husband]] Rob live in, even moving several unpacked boxes to the attic as she clears them out day by day. [[spoiler:After finding out her husband has been cheating on her, befriending the mistress, and finding out he gaslit her about the reasons for their young daughter's death, she decides to get him killed.]]
** In the 2019 storyline of season 1, Jade (as part of a throuple), is more of a "Housepartner" as she does housewifely duties after moving in with her lover and lover's husband (they have an open marriage). She is a more MsFanservice version of the role. [[spoiler:She turns out to be a serial killer.]]