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Today in Focus

‘A husband expects a yes’: wife schools and the Christian nationalist movement

Today in Focus

The Guardian

Daily News, News

4.5778 Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2026

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Alaina Demopoulos reports on the Christian influencers telling women to submit to their husbands. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is The Guardian.

0:08.8

Today, the rise of Christian conservative influences teaching women to be submissive.

0:26.9

I'm just your average little small town pastor's wife.

0:28.4

We're reformed Baptist.

0:31.1

Like we're not known for our... One morning, Guardian feature writer Elena Demopoulos was drinking her coffee and scrolling

0:36.1

through TikTok when something caught her eye.

0:39.7

Calling this proactive submission, this is where we're actually going to be pitching

0:44.6

leadership opportunities to our husbands and giving. And she is promising you that if you have lost your way in your marriage, if your husband isn't

0:58.4

paying the attention that you want him to, she has the answer for you and you will find

1:05.2

it in the six-week class that she is selling you. It was an ad for an online school for wives.

1:14.6

She was intrigued, so she paid the $17 and signed up.

1:18.8

She's sitting on the ground.

1:20.6

It's really informal, like you would maybe be talking with a friend.

1:24.5

Oh, hi there.

1:25.5

Let's talk about the honor of attention.

1:30.8

She speaks pretty softly.

1:39.7

You get the sense that she has probably done this type of talk in a church somewhere with other wives in real life. And show them that you're listening, that you're glad to see them. This is the

1:43.6

kind of thing you can do with your husband when he comes home or just when he

1:47.1

walks into the room to tell you something.

1:50.9

The woman was called Tilly Dillahay, one of a raft of Christian conservative women

1:57.1

building online businesses by promising women that they can find happiness if they would

2:02.7

only follow a few simple rules.

...

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