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Papa Does Preach: Daughters and Polarisation of Attitudes toward Abortion

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  • Van Effenterre, Clémentine

    (University of Toronto)

Abstract

This article examines the hypothesis that having daughters polarises male politicians' attitudes toward abortion rights. Using French and U.S voting records, I estimate that having daughters decreases support for abortion law by 25% for right-wing congressmen in France, and increases support for Democrats by 12%. I find similar behavioural patterns for voters using electoral surveys. Robustness checks confirm that this result is not an artefact of family stopping rules. I rationalise these findings in a model predicting that fathers with paternalistic preferences adopt a more polarised political position on abortion when they have a daughter rather than a son.

Suggested Citation

  • Van Effenterre, Clémentine, 2017. "Papa Does Preach: Daughters and Polarisation of Attitudes toward Abortion," IZA Discussion Papers 11177, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11177
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    Cited by:

    1. Nicole Y. Wesley & James C. Garand, 2021. "The Effect of Children's Gender on Parents’ Attitudes Toward Women," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(4), pages 1787-1802, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    political behaviour; gender; polarisation; voting; attitudes; abortion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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