A housewife (also known as a homemaker or a stay-at-home mother/mom/mum) is a woman whose role is running or managing her family's home—housekeeping, which includes caring for her children; cleaning and maintaining the home; making, buying and/or mending clothes for the family; buying, cooking, and storing food for the family; buying goods that the family needs for everyday life; partially or solely managing the family budget—and who is not employed outside the home (i.e., a career woman). The male equivalent is the househusband.

Webster's Dictionary defines a housewife as a married woman who is in charge of her household. The British Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (1901) defines a housewife as "the mistress of a household; a female domestic manager [...]". In British English, a small sewing kit is also sometimes called a huswif,^: 115 housewife or hussif.

In the Western world, stereotypical gender roles, particularly for women, were challenged by the feminist movement in the latter 20th century to allow women to choose whether to be housewives or to have a career. Changing economics also increased the prevalence of two-income households.