Mighty Dads, do you split household chores with your spouse? If so, you may be teaching your Mighty Girl that she can be anything she wishes to be! A 2014 gender roles study from the University of British Columbia found that in households where men take on a more equal share of the housework, their daughters had broader career goals. Alyssa Croft, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at UBC and lead author of the study, says that when girls are “developing ideas of what is possible for themselves, these ideas may be based on what their fathers expect from women in general and from their mothers.” So when Dad takes on an equal share of the chores at home, more girls report a greater interest in a broad range of careers, while in households with unevenly divided chores, girls are more likely to say they want to join traditionally feminine occupations. Croft believes this correlation may have to do with the so-called “second shift” phenomenon, first described by sociologist Arlie Hochschild in 1989 when she observed that women coming home from full-time jobs were still spending more hours on chores and childcare than men. Croft says that the message girls receive when chores are unequal in their household is, “You can do anything you want to do, but you have to do all this too.” The study also found that action was far more powerful than words: in families where dads paid lip service to gender equality, but still skipped out on the majority of chores, no broadening of their daughter’s career ambitions was seen. In other words, Croft says, “Our data suggests that kids might pick up their stereotypes about gender and about themselves not only from what parents say explicitly but from what they do around the house.” Croft cautions that her research is only the start of the story, and that much more needs to be done to clarify the relationship between dads doing chores and daughters dreaming big. It’s also quite likely that dads doing their fair share of household chores may be more supportive of their daughter’s dreams overall. However, she says, “Women make up less than a third of senior management positions in Canada. One of the reasons is they just have less time to devote to more involved career responsibilities, thanks to the second shift. Our study suggests that a more equitable division of household labor can inspire young girls to pursue some of these more involved careers.” You can read more about Croft’s study via the link below. To introduce your Mighty Girl to a few of the career possibilities before her, in our Mighty Careers blog series, we showcase different careers and share recommendations for books, toys, and clothing to help inspire your Mighty Girls aspirations. So far in this series, we have featured wildlife biologist, astronaut/astronomer, veterinarian, engineer and pilot -- to view these posts, visit amightygirl/blog/category/mighty-careers Sharing stories about the Mighty Girls and women of the past is also a great way to encourage your Mighty Girl to dream big! Our biography section includes hundreds of great titles celebrating women in every career from arts to science to teaching at amightygirl/books/history-biography/biography For two excellent books designed to introduce teen girls to a wide variety of careers, check out Firestarters: 100 Job Profiles to Inspire Young Women (amightygirl/firestarters) and In Their Shoes: Extraordinary Women Describe Their Amazing Careers (amightygirl/in-their-shoes).
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 01:12:39 +0000
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