Working moms have more successful daughters & more caring sons, Harvard Business School study says
According to a report published on June 19 by the Harvard Business
School, daughters of working mothers are more likely to be employed,
hold supervisory positions, and earn more money than the daughters of
women who don’t work outside the home.
The researchers also found a statistically significant effect on the sons of working women, who are likely to spend more time caring for family members and doing household chores than are the sons of stay-at-home mothers.
Analyzing data from two dozen countries, the researchers concluded that the daughters of employed mothers are 4.5% more likely to be employed themselves than are the daughters of stay-at-home mothers. While this number may seem small, it is statistically significant at the 99% level, meaning there is less than a 1% chance that such a result is due to chance.
The researchers also found a statistically significant effect on the sons of working women, who are likely to spend more time caring for family members and doing household chores than are the sons of stay-at-home mothers.
Analyzing data from two dozen countries, the researchers concluded that the daughters of employed mothers are 4.5% more likely to be employed themselves than are the daughters of stay-at-home mothers. While this number may seem small, it is statistically significant at the 99% level, meaning there is less than a 1% chance that such a result is due to chance.
Even more surprising, says Kathleen McGinn, a
professor at Harvard Business School and the lead author of the study,
is the effect that working mothers have on their daughters’ chances of
being a supervisor at work. “We did expect that it would effect
employment but we didn’t expect that it would effect supervisory
responsibility,” she tells Quartz.
Even after controlling for gender
attitudes—to take beliefs regarding gender roles out of the
equation—the researchers found that 33% of daughters of working mothers
held supervisory roles, compared to only 25% of daughters of
stay-at-home moms. “What I take away is that employed mothers create an
environment in which their children’s attitudes on what is appropriate
for girls to do and what is appropriate for boys to do is affected,”
McGinn says.
The study was based on national-level data, as
well as individual-level survey data collected across 24 countries by
the International Social Survey Programme in 2002 and 2012. In
particular, the researchers examined results from a survey question that
asked respondents whether, during their childhood, their mother had
ever spent a year or more working full- or part-time; then they
regressed these responses against a host of variables to test the
outcomes.
McGinn says that the effects of working mothers
were most striking in countries labeled in the study as “stagnating
moderates,” a category that included both the US and the UK. These are
countries where respondents generally held moderate views about gender
issues and egalitarianism in 2002, and where the attitudes remained
roughly the same 10 years later.
McGinn says that the income of daughters of
working mothers in the US was $5,200 higher than that of daughters of
women who stayed at home, when controlling for gender attitudes.
Her message for working mothers is that being employed has long-lasting, positive effects on children. “When you go to work, you are helping your children understand that there are lots of opportunities for them,” McGinn says.
Source: Business Insider
Her message for working mothers is that being employed has long-lasting, positive effects on children. “When you go to work, you are helping your children understand that there are lots of opportunities for them,” McGinn says.
Source: Business Insider
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