True or False? Dads Who Cook, Wash Plates Raise More Ambitious Daughters

I hope all the fathers and aspiring fathers on here learn a thing or two from this. If fathers want their daughters to aspire to potentially high-paying careers like doctors, CEOs, engineers, etc, they should roll up their sleeves and help with some extra house chores, according to a new study.

The study titled, “How fathers treat their domestic duties appears to play a unique gatekeeper role,” conducted by a group of psychologists at the University of British Columbia, Canada, suggests that fathers who perform household chores, like sweeping the floors, cleaning dishes and doing laundry, are more likely to raise daughters who aspire to less-traditional but more lucrative female careers like medicine.


The study adds that how parents share domestic duties plays a key role in shaping the gender attitudes and aspirations of their children, especially daughters, because little girls watch how their parents share household chores and what they observe play a crucial role in shaping their attitude towards gender and work.

However, it is believed that there are other factors that explain why children aspire to certain careers, such as parental occupation and educational background, having strong role models, decent education, inner confidence, household income, the length of time parents spend with their children, the quality of a child’s school and the aspirations of her friends and peer group.

According to psychology researcher and the lead author of the study, Alyssa Croft, who is also a PhD candidate in the university, while mothers’ gender and work equality beliefs were key factors in predicting kids’ attitudes toward gender, the strongest predictor of daughters’ own professional goals and ambitions was their fathers’ approach to household chores.

The study surveyed families at UBC’s Living Lab at Science World. The researchers followed 326 children between the ages of seven and 13, and at least one of their parents. The families were primarily made up of heterosexual couples that live together with their children.

What did surprise the researchers, however, was the link between a father’s role in carrying out chores and their daughter’s career aspirations. Even if fathers spoke out in favour of gender equality, but did not perform the domestic duties, their daughters were still more likely to see themselves pursuing female-dominant careers as nurses, teachers, librarians or stay-at home moms, unlike fathers who walk the talk.

Croft said the study’s findings were an important lesson for dads if they want their daughters to aim for careers outside of the norm for women because parents’ domestic actions may speak louder than words.

The findings further revealed that a more balanced division of household labour among parents might promote greater workforce equality in future generations.

The study believes that young women are ambitious and very much want to be financially independent but are sometimes discouraged by some hurdles, which makes it difficult. While some girls shy away from what they call male subjects in school and end up choosing other subjects that eventually lead to lower paid jobs.