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The 'Mighty Girl' Effect: Does Parenting Daughters Alter Attitudes towards Gender Roles?

Author

Listed:
  • Borrell-Porta, Mireia

    (London School of Economics)

  • Costa-Font, Joan

    (London School of Economics)

  • Philipp, Julia

    (London School of Economics)

Abstract

Understanding the malleability of gender norms is crucial to address gender inequalities. We study the effect of parenting daughters on a gender role attitude relating to the traditional male breadwinner model: whether the husband should earn and the wife stay at home. We control for other covariates that capture alternative explanations for gender role perceptions. Our results suggest evidence of a positive effect of parenting daughters on acceptance of less traditional gender roles. The effect is only robust among fathers and driven by parenting school age rather than younger daughters, which is consistent with a social identity explanation. Results suggest that parenting daughters of school age (as opposed to parenting only sons) increases the probability to disagree with the statement that 'husband should earn and wife stay at home' by over 5 percentage points. We conclude that gender role attitudes can be shaped by events that occur later in life.

Suggested Citation

  • Borrell-Porta, Mireia & Costa-Font, Joan & Philipp, Julia, 2018. "The 'Mighty Girl' Effect: Does Parenting Daughters Alter Attitudes towards Gender Roles?," IZA Discussion Papers 11259, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11259
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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. Martín Leites & Gonzalo Salas, 2025. "Intergenerational Transmission of Preferences for Redistribution: The Case of Uruguay," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 252(1), pages 73-112, March.
    4. Eiji Yamamura, 2021. "Granddaughter and voting for a female candidate," Papers 2102.13464, arXiv.org.
    5. Hauser,Christina Sarah, 2024. "Tackling Gender Discriminatory Inheritance Law Privately : Lessons from a Survey Expe riment in Tunisia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10693, The World Bank.
    6. Martín Leites & Gonzalo Salas, 2019. "Intergenerational transmission of preferences for redistribution," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 19-20, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    7. 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.
    8. Mette Goertz & Ida Lykke Kristiansen & Tianyi Wang, 2024. "The Power of Daughters: How Physicians Family Influences Female Patients Health," CEBI working paper series 24-18, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    9. van Lent, Max, 2022. "Fathering Daughters and Personality," IZA Discussion Papers 15012, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. 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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    JEL classification:

    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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