Trad Wives and Sex Differences in Career Choice

My interview in the Telegraph on A Billion Years of Sex Differences

May 31, 2026

I recently sat down with the Telegraph’s science editor, Sarah Knapton, to discuss a range of topics related to my book, A Billion Years of Sex Differences.

We kicked things off with the trad wife phenomenon. Here’s an excerpt from Sarah’s piece:

The “trad wife” or “traditional wife” trend has spread through social media, and promotes a lifestyle in which the husband is the sole financial provider, leader and protector, while the woman is dependent and submissive…
It is supposed to be based on historical gender roles, which proponents claim have been lost in modern life.
But Dr Steve Stewart-Williams, of the University of Nottingham Malaysia, whose book ‘A Billion Years of Sex Differences’ is published on June 4, said there was little evidence to support the phenomenon.
“The idea that this is the natural arrangement for our species is, I think, very, very weak,” he explained.
“For most of our evolutionary history, women weren’t just at home with the kids; they had jobs outside the home, gathering food and the like.
“[And for] most of [our] evolutionary history, women were not isolated. They were hanging out with other adults most of the day.”

To be clear, if people want to adopt the trad wife lifestyle, that’s fine with me. The fact that it’s not the natural arrangement for our species doesn’t mean it’s inherently bad - most ways we live today aren’t natural. My guess is that this lifestyle wouldn’t suit most women, at least not for long. But people are different, and it would no doubt suit some. That’s what we should be thinking about when making life decisions: what would suit us, not what’s natural or unnatural.

A second topic we addressed was sex differences in career choice. This is arguably the most controversial topic I address in the book, and the one I’ve got the most grief about in the past. Another excerpt.

Dr Stewart-Williams said he accepted that men and women naturally gravitate toward different types of work – with women often preferring people or language-focused roles, such as psychology, the humanities, teaching and caring professions.
Conversely, fields that are less people-oriented, such as computer science, physics, and mathematics, tend to naturally remain male-dominated.
As societies become more developed and women gain more rights and opportunities, the gender divide in careers becomes greater not less, a phenomenon known as the “gender equality paradox”.
In wealthier nations, people have the financial freedom to follow their dreams and individuality, which ends up giving natural, innate differences more room to grow, he argues…
“For a lot of sex differences, you’d expect them to be smaller in gender-equal nations, wealthier nations, nations with higher levels of human development, but instead they’re often larger,” he said.
Dr Stewart-Williams said individuals should be able to pursue whatever interests them, whether that meant women choosing STEM professions or men entering teaching and caring professions.
But he warned that because the sexes have different average interests, trying to force a strict 50-50 gender balance in every occupation is unnatural.

I’d quibble with the wording of that final line. I do think that trying to force a strict 50-50 sex ratio in every occupation would be unwise, as it would inevitably mean nudging, bribing, or cajoling some people to go into areas less aligned with their interests, or implementing strict quotas. But I wouldn’t say a 50-50 gender balance is unnatural - first, because none of our modern occupations are natural, and second, because the tacit assumption in this context is that unnatural means bad. It doesn’t. Plenty of unnatural things are very good, and plenty of natural things are terrible.

Note as well that I don’t deny that discrimination and socialization help shape the sex ratios of different fields. I just don’t think they’re the entire explanation. Other factors - in particular, average sex differences in career-related interests - also play a role.

You can read the whole Telegraph piece here. And you can order A Billion Years of Sex Differences here.

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