The Actual, Literal College for Tradwives, Where Right-Wing Women Seek Their Mrs. Degrees -Vanity Fair

College for Tradwives, Where Right-Wing Women Seek Their Mrs. Degrees

At Hyles-Anderson College, an unaccredited school outside of Chicago, classes for women focus on “vital training in Biblical concepts of marriage and child-rearing,” while coursework for men focuses on “church education.”

By Olivia Empson. March 27, 2026

Sarah Smith still keeps tiny color-coded cards printed with recipes for apple crisp, old-fashioned bread pudding, and hash brown casserole stashed away in her West Virginia home. They were coursework notes from Crock-Pot Cooking, a class in the Marriage and Motherhood program at Hyles-Anderson, the college in Indiana she graduated from in 2010. “Talk about a trigger,” she says with a laugh.

Back then, 20 young women would gather every Monday morning for a 50-minute tutorial in the art of the slow simmer, with other courses offering lessons in canning and freezing, and rearing teenagers. On its Web site, Hyles-Anderson describes the program as a course of study “designed to train ladies to be capable wives and mothers. Ladies are given vital training in Biblical concepts of marriage and child-rearing, as well as in practical skills such as cooking, sewing, and household management.”

“I thought, for sure, it’s 2026, they can’t be still offering [canning and freezing], and I was really shocked that they were,” Smith said. “The end goal basically was to be a wife and a mother.”

Hyles-Anderson, an unaccredited college founded in 1972, is an hour drive from downtown Chicago and awards four-year degrees, operating independently of government oversight. Its website maintains this is to “avoid the potential of outside influences or pressures to change our theological, doctrinal, and moral position.” Hyles-Anderson did not respond to a request for comment.

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While prospective applicants “must be either a high school graduate or have a GED certificate,” the admission policies at Hyles-Anderson also consider a student’s marital status. According to the 2025-2026 academic catalog, “Married students must be at least 20 years old by the first day of registration for each semester. Single, divorced students must be at least 25 years of age by the first day of registration for each semester.”

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