Dads Who Help Out Around The Home Might Raise More Ambitious Daughters

Dads Who Help Out Around The Home Might Raise More Ambitious Daughters

It’s good to share household chores in order to spread the load, but doing so can result in some interesting side effects as well. A study by the University of British Columbia found that dads who help out around the home might be more likely to raise ambitious daughters.

Picture: bikeriderlondon/Shutterstock

The results of the study suggest that fathers’ activities in the home have more influence over daughters than sons:

Data from 326 children aged 7 to 13 years revealed that mothers’ explicit beliefs about domestic gender roles predicted the beliefs held by their children. In addition, when fathers enacted or espoused a more egalitarian distribution of household labour, their daughters in particular expressed a greater interest in working outside the home and having a less stereotypical occupation. Fathers’ implicit gender-role associations also uniquely predicted daughters’ (but not sons’) occupational preferences.

The researchers note that this could be caused by other things too — such as the fact that those men might be married to women who work outside the home or have more progressive views on gender roles. Of course, it’s good to share the workload regardless of its effect on your kids.

Do Parents’ Gender Roles at Home Predict Children’s Aspirations? [Psychological Science via Wise Bread]


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