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The ‘mighty girl’ effect: does parenting daughters alter attitudes towards gender norms?

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  • Mireia Borrell-Porta
  • Joan Costa-Font
  • Julia Philipp

Abstract

We study the effect of parenting daughters on attitudes towards gender norms in the UK; specifically, attitudes towards the traditional male breadwinner norm in which it is the husband’s role to work and the wife’s to stay at home. We find robust evidence that rearing daughters decreases fathers’ likelihood to hold traditional attitudes. This result is driven by fathers of school-aged daughters, for whom the effects are robust to the inclusion of individual fixed effects. Our estimates suggest that fathers’ probability to support traditional gender norms declines by approximately 3%age points (8%) when parenting primary school-aged daughters and by 4%age points (11%) when parenting secondary school-aged daughters. The effect on mothers’ attitudes is generally not statistically significant. These findings are consistent with exposure and identity theories. We conclude that gender norm attitudes are not stable throughout the life-course and can significantly be shaped by adulthood experiences.

Suggested Citation

  • Mireia Borrell-Porta & Joan Costa-Font & Julia Philipp, 2019. "The ‘mighty girl’ effect: does parenting daughters alter attitudes towards gender norms?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 71(1), pages 25-46.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:71:y:2019:i:1:p:25-46.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oep/gpy063
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    Cited by:

    1. Somville, Vincent, 2019. "Having a Daughter Reduces Male Violence Against a Partner," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 24/2019, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    2. M. Niaz Asadullah & Elisabetta De Cao & Fathema Zhura Khatoon & Zahra Siddique, 2021. "Measuring gender attitudes using list experiments," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 367-400, April.
    3. Eiji Yamamura, 2021. "Granddaughter and voting for a female candidate," Papers 2102.13464, arXiv.org.
    4. Borrell Porta, Mireia & Contreras Silva, Valentina & Costa-Font, Joan, 2023. "Is employment during motherhood a ‘value changing experience’?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118054, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. van Lent, Max, 2022. "Fathering Daughters and Personality," IZA Discussion Papers 15012, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Xiaodong Sun & Kaisheng Lai & Hong Han & Chenyan Yang, 2023. "Could Children’s Gender Predict Their Parents’ Housework Behavior?," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, July.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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